I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:13-14
“Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”
G. Campbell Morgan as recounted in The Minister’s Manual edited by Lee McGlone (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007) 478.
Joy St. Clare modeled waiting for me and my family better than any human on the planet. Let me give an example and explain how it relates to generosity.
Twice daily day for six years or so, after she ate a cup of food each morning and each evening we would give her a chew to help with arthritis from overworking her joints while hunting.
Joy loved that liver flavored chew. You could liken it to waiting for the goodness of God. Remember, ‘goodness’ in today’s Scripture is the Old Testament word for ‘generosity’.
Joy always waited with expectancy. She would walk into the kitchen and point with her nose to the cupboard where the chews were located and stare with her gaze fixed. She would do this for minutes.
If we forgot, often due to a variety of unexpected factors, she would walk over to us and stare deeply into our eyes. She did not whine, fuss, or bark. She stared as if to say, “I’m waiting.”
She exhibited the readiness of receiving the goodness that the psalmist wrote about, and she had the ability to do nothing but actively wait as Morgan put it. Thanks for the lesson, Joy!
What does this communicate to you about generosity? Are you waiting to experience the generosity of God? Are you waiting for instructions regarding how to enjoy and share what God has supplied?
Pause and reflect. Wait for the Lord. Keep your eyes fixed on Him, waiting actively with unswerving focus, like Joy! Do this and I am confident you too will see God’s goodness.