SoulFit: What God Does While We Wait

We explore why waiting is not punishment but preparation, how God shapes character under pressure, and what hidden work happens while we cannot see it. Practical steps help us cooperate with the process so the promise blesses rather than crushes.

• character before blessing, not after
• perseverance grown through trials and delays
• pressure as spiritual strength training
• refinement like silver, impurities rising to the surface
• God working in layers, aligning people and timing
• shifting the question to what God is growing in us
• daily disciplines, resilient emotions, and honest prayer
• choosing one trait to train with intention
• promise timed to protection and readiness

“Look forward to seeing you right here next week on SoulFit.”

https://aarondegler.com/

Transcript

Welcome To SoulFit

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to SoulFit. Thank you so much for taking a little time to join us this week. If this is your first time, we just simply each week we join a live call and we just take a little bit of scripture and talk about how we can apply that scripture to our everyday life and how that applies and how that looks in everyday real life. So that's kind of what we try to do each week on Soul Fit because we need to be fit on the outside as much as we are on the inside. So let's go ahead and join our live call. Yes, yes, yes. All right. So today's really good because we've been talking about what we do while we're waiting. Today we're going to talk about what God is doing while we're while we are waiting. Because we always wonder, maybe he forgot me. Maybe he got sidetracked. Maybe he went into the other room and forgot about me over here. So we're going to talk about what is he doing? What's going on? And waiting is not, we got to think about waiting is not wasted time. It's developmental time. God is often doing, and get this, God is often doing deeper work in us before we see visible work around us. So the delay is not empty. They're really formative. They're forming us when we're when we have delays. So, and sometimes we think of delay as punishment, but it's really preparation. Think about this: God prepares the person before he releases the promise. So we're going to talk about how important that is and really what God is doing. So we're going to talk about the first thing is God develops character before he delivers the blessing. In James 1, 2 through 4, it says, consider pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may by be mature and complete, not lacking anything. So he has to develop our character. And so that waiting helps build perseverance. Because what do we we're talking about? What do we need to do? We continue to pursue, we continue to do the things that we're required to do. It builds maturity. Would you give a set of car keys and tell your five-year-old go out and drive the car? No. Because is he ready for that? Or she? No. But what do we do when they turn 16? And sometimes they're not still ready for that. But what do we do? We say, here, go take the car out on your, you are now ready for some independence. You're now ready. But we had to teach them all the things through the years as they matured. And as we mature, it also builds stability. We become a little bit more stable. You know, and think about what we are praying for? When, and a lot of times we're waiting and we think, what do you what are you doing, God? I'm praying. What what are we praying for? We're praying for blessings. And is what God is doing is building our character. Again, because he's preparing us before he ever releases the promise. Character sustains what the blessing provides. So think about that. If we don't have, so the the character is almost a foundation. What if we got that blessing? What if you gave the five-year-old the car and said, go take it for a test drive? How do you think that would turn out? Not good. Not good. Chances are they can't probably reach the pedals, they can't see over the steering wheel, they have no idea where to put the key. And if they do, they have no idea how to get it in gear. All the different things, they have no idea because they weren't ready for that. But at 16, at 18, when we give them the car and we say, here's the keys, go take it for a drive. They're now ready to be able to drive that vehicle and sustain going a long way. So it's no different for us. You know, sometimes we're, I mean, at 12 years old, your kid might be, man, I wish I had a car. I wish I had a car. But they're nowhere ready for that. And we do the same, and we would go like, You're a knucklehead. What are you doing wanting a car? You have no idea what you would do with it or how to handle it. But yet we're no different. We're playing, praying for the blessing, and God still has to build our character. He has to still work on us so that we, when we're given it, when we're given the blessing, we have the character that can sustain what he has provided. Because again, give the car too soon, they're gonna crash it. Even at 16, what happens sometimes when we give them the car? They crash it, they have a wreck, they have a fender bender because they're kind of ready, but not totally ready. So he's really developing our character. That's what he's working on. We're waiting, we're looking at his waiting, but he's working on developing our character before he delivers the blessing when we're just expecting the end result. And then during our waiting, we also talk about some pressures, right? And what do those pressures do? They begin, the pressures that we're getting starts to produce some strength. So in Romans 5, 3 through 5, it says, not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. It says, not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings. How many times have you said, Yes, I got another suffering season? This is awesome. Probably not. We're not really rejoicing in that. But the suffering produces perseverance. And the perseverance is what he is using to help build our character. And in those suffering, what does that do? The waiting stretches our patience, it stretches our emotional, how we regulate our emotions, it stretches our trust, it stretches our surrender. So it's that pressure of all these of sufferings. And just like we talk about, what happens to a muscle under resistance? It grows, and but it has to have that heavy weight. And so the heavy weight looks like some of our sufferings and what we're going through. And faith grows under delay. You don't come in and lift it one heavy weight and go, whoop, I'm strong enough. No, it it it it takes time. You it takes going back and lifting the weight and lifting the weight and lifting the weight. You know, a lot of you you you keep coming back to the gym day after day after day after day. Why? Because you're you're working on growing your muscles, making them look better. But yet when it comes to our our faith, we get kind of antsy and like it should be quick. But it only grows under that constant tension and that delay. So it's it's really it's think of it as spiritual strength training. Well, that's not fun. You know, how many? I mean, you come in and lift weights and you kind of laugh and giggle and have fun, but sometimes our sufferings aren't really a lot of giggling going on. It's a lot of irritation, it's a lot of, have you forgotten about me, God? But think about in those seasons of waiting, when you've been waiting, has your faith grown? Has it been tested? Has it put under pressure? Have you maybe had to work on some trust issues? Have you had to work on some patience? And that's really what it is. It's it's God, your trainer, and he says, I'm gonna put you under some spiritual strength training, and this is what it looks like. You're gonna have to wait while I'm doing some other things. And and and while we're doing that, our refinement happens in the hiding. So what we're being refined when it it's it's hidden. So in Psalm 66, 10, it says, For you, God, tested us, you refined us like silver. Refinement is uncomfortable, it is slow, it is often unseen. How is silver purified? It's purified through fire, and and through that fire, the impurities rise to the surface. Oh, here's where we get uncomfortable. So, what does our fire often reveal? What are our impurities that are coming to the top? They look like impatience, they look like fear, they look like pride, they look like control, they look like comparison, and and we don't really like all those things, right? We don't like we don't like our impatience to be seen on the surface, we don't like for our pride to be seen on the surface, we don't like our control issues to be seen on the surface. So, what do we do? We try to stuff them down. But God's putting us under that pressure, under that suffering season sometimes, so those things will come up because we need them to rise up because if we if we don't let them rise up, we don't get the the purified what's underneath that. That's what he's trying to get us to. So, and I think sometimes we have shame when those that impatience rise to the top, the fear, the comparison, the control. But it shouldn't be shame. It should be really viewed at as we're being refined. Because what happens when all those impurities are taken from silver? Silver's worth some money, right? And so we become worth more because those impurities got brought to the top, and we're able to do something with those and get rid of those impurities. But sometimes we don't realize there's impurities there until we're put under pressure. And we have to see them rise and go, oh wow, I need to take care of some of those things. And so while he's doing that, he's also aligning things that we can't see. He we're we're focused and he's elsewhere working. So he's working while we're waiting, he's working on doors that are being prepared for us. He's working on people are being positioned, he's working on aligning the right time. He's working on you being strengthened. So he's putting in work that we can't see. We can't see what's going on with somebody else in their life that down the road at the right time we're gonna connect. And eclasty, e class, it's the E-word. Well, Eclastes, that's not right. I know it's not, but Ecclesiastes. Thank you, Ecclesiastes 311. He makes everything beautiful in his time. Get this. God works in layers, not in moments. And we want him to work in moments, but he has to layer, he's working in the layer, building on the next layer and the next layer and the next layer. And he's continually working in layers, not in the moments. So, you know, really, it how do we cooperate with the process? How do we how do we go along with while we're waiting, knowing that God is working? And instead of sometimes, maybe we ask, and I and I think we're all guilty of this, I know I am. Why isn't this happening? Why isn't this going faster? What is going on? Maybe we should be asking, what is God growing in me? You know, I I think about as getting ready for a day, I was thinking about different areas in my life that, you know, there are some blessings I've I asked for a number of years ago that as I look back, I was nowhere ready to receive those, but then got irritated when they didn't happen. And and as I see things change now, I think I can I can see some areas that I had to get stronger and my character had to get better and be worked on before I could come into some of the things that he has planned. And and sometimes I think we have a feeling or or think that we're made for something more, something bigger. But we're not there yet because again, God is working in us so we can be ready to receive that promise, to receive those blessings. And so when when it's not happening quick enough, think about he's working in layers. And what is he growing in me? And and and we we can do some things by we can develop our daily discipline. We can build emotional resilience, we can get stronger emotionally, and we can bounce back. Resilience is bouncing back. We can strengthen our prayer life. We gotta have a communication, um, just like you do with your best friend, just like you do with the spouse. You have a two-way communication. I mean, it's no different. Um, our prayer life is just, you know, the more we do it, it's more text to your friend, to your best friend. It's more text to your spouse. That's really what it is. And it's and it can be continual prayer. But it doesn't have to be a formal thing, like, you know, we close our eyes, we put our hands together like we vision as kids, you know, kneeling beside the bed, putting our elbows on the bed, folding hands. It can be while you're sitting in traffic, it can be 30 seconds while you're walking in the door to somewhere. It can be a quick he'll he'll he's gonna catch it. We can begin to release some of those comparisons. We can say, stay faithful in the small things. You know, we have to, I think we're always looking for the big things, but we just have to stay faithful in the small things. Because waiting becomes really powerful when we participate. And we've talked about it before, waiting doesn't mean you're just hands off. It means waiting means there's things you're doing to participate, we're doing, just as God is doing some things over here, he's needing you to do some things too in that waiting season. So, you know, the the challenge really is how how do we do that? It is what what's maybe a character trait that you need to grow? Maybe it's patience, maybe it's discipline, maybe it's humility, maybe it's trust, maybe you haven't gotten that blessing or that thing you're asking for, because there might be some areas that need to be grown a little bit. Maybe it's a real trust, or maybe it's some humility, maybe it's some real patience. And and practice it intentional. Be intentional about it. Because again, it's gonna be it's gonna be built under pressure. So, I mean, if if it's patience, people are gonna be pushing all the buttons, kind of like an elf, when he gets in the elevator and he just does all the buttons for all the floors, and the guy in the elevator gets mad at him. There may be days where somebody hits all your buttons, and you have to be really intentional about patience because that's your pressure. Maybe it's noticing some emotional triggers, maybe it's replacing complaints with gratitudes. So that's kind of the challenge is identify a character trait that you need to grow and practice it intentionally, and how can you do that? And and just probably the last thing is and think about this and and leave this with you, is if the promised if the promise arrived before the preparation, it could crush you instead of bless you. If if it came too soon and you weren't ready, what was meant to be a blessing could actually crush you. And so we have to be ready for it. We have to do some things, and God knows that we have to be ready for it. So it's not that he's ignoring us, it's not that he's not paying attention to us, it's not that he went in the room and forgot what he went in there for. It's none of that. It's because there's things that we have to work on because he wants nothing but the best for us, just as a father wants for their child. They want nothing but the best. But sometimes we're not ready for how good he wants it for us. And so he has to put these things in our way just like the silver, so he can put us under pressure so we can begin to be refined and get rid of those impurities that he's trying to get out of us. So those pressures aren't to be mean to us, to be ugly. They are really for us to grow into what he has for us. But we have to grow into that. So next week um we finish up our five weeks and we've talked about waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. And the and next week is about moving when God says now. And you know, kind of like when we do and go now. And sometimes we have to say, and go now, when we're starting an exercise. But we're gonna talk about moving when God says now. So I'll just finish this in prayer, I'll close this in prayer, and then you can go on about your fantastic Friday. So, dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for bringing us each one of us together in our different locations, at our different places that we come together at this time and this moment to understand what you're doing while we're waiting and our responsibility, and that it is not a punishment, but it is a time for us that you want us to be refined, for us to grow, to be ready for that blessing, that promise that you have for us that is so much greater than we than we know, than we see, than we think. But we have to be able to handle that blessing, handle that promise. So, Lord, I just pray that you give us the strength in the daily task and the daily actions for those pressures, and so that we may be refined into what you want us to be ready for that blessing. So in Jesus' name we pray, amen. And thank thank you to everybody for joining us and have a fantastic Friday and a great weekend. Thank y'all, and thank you to each of you for joining us on SoulFit. Look forward to seeing you right here next week on SoulFit.