Dear Friends,

Had some sad news today.......it seems that the Telephone Company responsible for brining broadband to Mt Morgan has delayed the upgrades. We were supposed to get broadband this month, but it may be as far away as September now.....that was a bit dissapointing. Basically it means that there will be no network, IP Camera and other stuff I hoped for the website. Anyways.....no point being worried.........good things come to those who wait.

Speaking of good things and waiting............I would like to take a few minutes to tell you about the good things that come from waiting on the Lord. Recently I was writing and saying how it is in silence that we get to know God and how being busy often hinders our getting to know Him. So when I mean waiting on the Lord I am speaking about a type of prayer where we come to a place which is quiet and we calm our minds and wait for Him to act.

If the truth be fully known........it is actually impossible for a human being to change themselves and be like God. No matter how hard any person has tried thy can never succeed. However when we come to God and sit in His presence in silence........we are giving Him permission to work on us and make changes that we couldn't do on our own. We are giving God a chance to speak to us, to rework things in us. As we wait on God our attitudes are changed and our values are changed and we often go forward from a time of prayer a better person........more like Jesus.

What I suggest is try starting by sitting in silence for 15 minutes a day. Start by reading a verse or two from the bible which is about Jesus or something he did. Then think about that scripture until you feel your mind is drawn near to God.............use the scripture as a tool of sorts to help get your mind of many other things you would normally be thinking about. Then once your attention is on God, just sit there. You don't need to think about the scripture anymore because it has brought you to be in God's presence..............now try not to think about anything, but just "sit there with Him." This is waiting on the Lord.

Waiting on the Lord like this can be very difficult to do. Firslty there are the many distractions that prevent us from getting there. The process of learning to be disciplined with your times with God will help improve you a great deal. However if we do manage to start it, we find that our mind wanders and thinks about many things. The best way to deal with this is not to worry about it, because that only takes your mind of Jesus and onto your problem of a wandering mind. Instead simply return your thought to God. Over time and with experience, this wandering will not happen so much.

However the biggest hurdle is the human mind that tries to figure out "why am I doing this?" or thinks "this isn't getting me anywhere" and wants to quit. If you are able to overcome these thoughts and persevere you will find that you benefit a great deal from a closeness to God which wasn't there before. You will find it much easier to resist sins and to obey Him. You will find that the things of God start to be more exciting and relevant............its because you know Him more.

Its exciting for me to write about these things.......so glad to be able to do it. The Lord bless you muchly.
Cheers
David

PS I wan't to list all the benefits of waiting on God in an email soon.........maybe in 2 weeks, but next week I want to write about a famous christian called Patrick who helped to bring the news of Jesus to Ireland. I think I'll do that next week.