Waiting for YOUR Pitch

I am a terrible softball player, actually I am not athletically inclined at all.  I run slow, prefer a stroll over a walk, and lets not even discuss my hand-eye coordination... or lack thereof.  Regardless of how terrible I am, I have been known to play a game or two of softball.  It is a lot of fun for a bunch of people of varying ages and skill level to get together to play ball.  While playing the game there are a lot of things that you hear, "We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher" or "Catch It" or "Run" or "Good Job" and the list goes on and on.  One of the things that you might hear your own teammates yell is, "wait for your pitch."  It is the batters job to throw pitches that appear to be right where you want them but then they will fall to the right, left or drop off at the end so they are too low.  Many times the batter is good enough that causes us to keep swinging at pitches that are not in our ideal swing range.  So that is when our teammates call to us to wait for the pitch is needed, to remind us that if the pitcher doesn't want to make us walk then he will have to pitch us a couple good ones.  When we do remember to wait with calm confidence on OUR pitch, and we get our swing right, we can make it out of the park.

Living life with Christ on our team is very similar.  Many times we take whatever is offered to us first that seems to meet our need instead of waiting for the perfect thing.  This, I believe, is especially true if we have had a couple of strikes already.  When we have need of a job, and we have had a few interviews and no offers, and then because we are feeling desperate we often times take the first job that is offered instead of waiting with calm confidence on the one that God wants for us.  This is similarly true for a companion, perhaps you have waited a long time and now there is someone who seems to fit even though God hasn't told you that he/she is the one.  Perhaps it is a house that you are looking for and finding the right one has proved to be difficult, so instead of allowing God to bring you the right one, you settle for the one you can get.  This philosophy is true for all things in our life, as there isn't anything too small that God is not interested in.  If we but wait on him, he will fulfill that of which we have need. 

Perhaps you are in a position of being down to the wire with needing a job, needing a house, car, etc. and you don't think this hold true given the limitations of time.  I know what you mean because I have experienced that very thing personally.  I have also experienced the wonder of having God come through at the exact right time because I continued to wait on him.  I know, without a doubt, that if we truly wait on God, he WILL come through at the right time.  It may be at 5:00pm on Friday, just when you think it is too late, rather than at 1:30 Tuesday afternoon but God will not let you down.  So bring your petitions to God, trust him and wait for God's perfect plan/will to unfold.  Don't settle for those things that are not perfectly in His will, that will in turn get you distracted or cause you to strike out so that you are unqualified for the perfect will.

"Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land..." Psalms 37:34