waiting

A friend posted this in another forum several months ago. Thought I would share. The prayer below is what I am praying. ~Jess

"In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." ~Psalm 5:3 b

"And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." ~Genesis 50:20 a

"We heard a wonderful story from a local pastor in Uberaba. It seems that some time back, a pastor friend of his felt led to buy a van in order to transport people to church. To help pay for the van, he would remove the backseats and do light delivery work. However, the van needed four new tires, and he had no money to purchase them.
One night while at church, the van was stolen. He had been praying for new tires, and now he had no van. Some of the members of the church tried to console him by saying that it was not God's will for him to have the van. Nevertheless, the pastor had faith that God would somehow use this for his good.
A few days later, the police called from a nearby town saying that they had caught the thief and had traced the pastor through the van's serial number. The pastor immediately caught a ride to that police station. He was surprised to find his van unharmed and with a set of new tires, new backseats, and a radio installed! He told the police officer that although it was his van, the thief had evidently supplied the extras. The policeman said, 'Well, I guess that is the thief's loss and your gain.'

God turned the evil intentions of a thief into good for a faithful, prayerful pastor. He does the same for us as we trust Him to work things out for our best."
~ M &J, South America

Heavenly Father, You see the big picture of my life. I pray that you would take my experiences to make me a better person today, someone who totally depends on you. Amen.

This came from Voices of the Faithful (Beth Moore), a devotional comprised of missionaries' testimonies. Thankfully, my car has not been stolen, I don't need new tires, and I haven't had to take a second job to make the payments. But I am waiting for other things. Through this story, the Lord reminded me (again...) that I can't see the whole picture, and that He hasn't forgotten the things I'm impatiently reminding Him about. He's preparing something better--and preparing me for it--than what I think is best. Most of us struggle with waiting, but the less obvious problem is expecting less than what God is capable of... I'm impatiently waiting for Him to give me less than His best. What are you waiting for?