Steadfastness:

The narrow road to learning how to trust the Lord in ALL things, everyday, no matter what.

I just finished reading one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors... for about the 7th time. :) Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliott. This book is all about learning to trust. Patience, steadfastness, surrender. Turning loneliness into a tangible offering to God and allowing Him to change your heart from one of bitterness and self-pity to one of pure joy and contentment in HIM.

"Patient waiting [...] is an important discipline for anyone who wants to learn to trust" (60).

Unfortunately, this just makes sense. If I wanted to take things into my own hands, then there would be no need to wait patiently, and I certainly would not have to learn to trust in the Lord. Also unfortunately, that model for life just does not work. My efforts to "work things out my own way" will end in vain every single time. I cannot do it on my own. (Sense a theme from the past few days? My life is not about ME or what I can do.)

So what does this mean for us? If I can't live life on my own and just find all the answers and figure everything out, then what is left for me to do? Well, we can either live forever striving or simply surrender. I don't say "simply" to imply that this choice is easy. The choice is not easy, nor are the actions that follow. Continuously choosing to surrender every moment of everyday... yeah, that is definitely not easy. Especially when the enemy tempts you with other options that, in the moment, appear to be better/easier. That way certainly may be more comfortable, but where does a life of comfort and ease lead? Definitely not to great impact for the Kingdom of God, that's for sure.

Learning to trust God requires a "patient waiting." Have you seen this to be true in your own life? Definitely is true in mine. I am one who wants to have everything figured out and outline exactly what my life is "supposed" to look like. Surrendering the desire to KNOW these things is extremely difficult and takes patient waiting. Waiting on HIS timing. Waiting for HIS best plan. Waiting for understanding. Waiting for direction. The act of waiting is surrender in itself in that we choose to defer [or "put off"] our own desires and yield to His. I don't want to just "go my own way" ... I want to confidently walk in His. Sometimes that means a season of waiting. Sometimes that season is long. But is it worth it? Most definitely. 

S.D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Prayer
"Steadfastness, that is holding on;
patience, that is holding back;
expectancy, that is holding the face up;
obedience, that is holding one's self in readiness to go or do;
listening, that is holding quiet and still so as to hear.

How long Lord must I wait?
Nevermind, child. Trust me" (end of chapter 12, Passion and Purity).