Sitting on the Side

I once heard a preacher say, "Don't serve past your sanctification". It's a truly profound statement when you think about it. It's a challenge not to allow yourself to be involved in certain ministry tasks or teach others certain spiritual principles that you don't have the character or the experience to back up. It's an encouragement to make sure that there is integrity backing up your service.
No one's perfect but there is a certain level of maturity and personal consistency that should precede our public service. (a sobering thought for me personally)

That's why making a decision to sit on the sidelines is often the best place for us to be; taking time to digest what God is teaching us and internalize the lessons He has been asking us to learn. But the reality is, making the decision to sit still; to wait until the time is right, requires a patience that very few have - that I often don't have.
I can see myself in my own children - who along with their cousin's yesterday, could barely wait for a few minutes after lunch before jumping back into the swimming pool. Their tummies full and bursting to the brim, I made them take a few minutes to allow the digestion process to take place but, of course, they wanted to get back in prematurely, without allowing what they'd taken in a chance to settle.

When jumping in head first to God's calling and assignments looks as exciting as that pool did to those kids and we feel like we can handle all that it will require to stay afloat, it can be difficult to discipline ourselves to wait until the digestion process of God's lessons has taken its full course.
The days, weeks or months of dangling our legs over the side of God's assignment, waiting for the cue to dive in will test our patience for sure and yet waiting until the time is right will ensure that what God is doing in us has time to settle appropriately.

What is God doing in you right now? 
Are you willing to quiet your hurried, anxious heart and wait until the right time to dive in to God's assignment for your life?

Priscilla



Like my children and their cousins dangling their bare legs over the edge of a cool, inviting pool yesterday - their bellies filled to the brim with lunch - waiting is required