Have you ever gone through times where you struggled with your faith? Perhaps times where you were trying to “Believe God” and it just didn’t seem to work the way you thought it should and you wondered, “Am I missing something, does this faith stuff really work, is there something wrong with me? Or have you thought to yourself, what should I be doing while I am waiting for my prayer to be answered?

Join me as we talk about these tough issues of faith, why at times it seems like such a struggle and what we can do when we are “Waiting on God.”

Few things make us more irritated than having to wait. Would you agree with that? We don’t like to have to wait.Whether it is waiting in traffic, a waiting room, in line at the grocery store. We don’t like waiting. Technology, which has sped up everything in our world, has made us even more impatient. Far more impatient than the farmer of a hundred years ago. Yet waiting is an important part of life. It is an important part of character development. There are some things in life that we only learn in waiting. There is no other way. Have you ever been in a hurry when GOD wasn’t? It's most frustrating of all when you are in GOD's waiting room. You can rush your kids but you can’t rush GOD. Some of you right now are waiting on GOD. You’re waiting on GOD for a job opportunity. You’re waiting on GOD for next steps. You’re waiting for a new direction. You’re waiting for God to remove a pain or to heal a relationship. You’re waiting for GOD to answer a prayer. And you go, “ I don’t get this! I pray and it doesn’t seem to work?"

Are you in GOD’s waiting room?

Do you know somebody that is? Are you wondering what you are supposed to do while you wait?

I want to invite you to join me as we look at GOD’s word for “Things we need to remember and things we can do when you’re in the waiting room of life."

Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

One of the most common heard phrases in Church is, “God Answers Prayers!” But that is just a half truth. The whole truth is, “God over-answers prayers!” All throughout the Bible and even continuing to the present day – God

always over-answers the prayers of his children. He continually gives us much more than we ask for – even blessings that we wouldn’t think to request. I remember one Sunday at Church while I was in College, saying to myself, “There has got to be more to the Christian life than what I am experiencing.” This was not even something I said audibly, but later realized it was the cry of my heart to God.

It was that summer that I met God in a real and living way. I was awakened to his presence and filled with the Holy Spirit. He stirred up within me a hunger for his word and a thirsting for his presence. God over answered my un-audible searching for the “real thing” – he gave me himself, an encounter with him, the fullness of his Holy Spirit and a longing for his word! Hallelujah!

Has your faith grown weary? Have you given up praying? For that wayward child? For that job situation? For a lost loved one? For even yourself? I want to invite you to join me for a “faith lift” as we go to the Biblical record, built on precedent after precedent in history all proving that God Delights – Repeat – Delights in over answering our prayers.

Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

Neuroscientist Matt Lieberman wrote a book called, “Social: Why our brains are wired to connect”. And he explains in the book that emotional and relational pain is registered in our brains just like physical pain is in our bodies. We don’t think of it that way. If we get hurt physically, a twisted ankle, a broken hand, we register that as real pain. But, if it’s emotional , we just tell ourselves, “You just got to get over it, move on!” So we see it differently. But Lieberman says,” That’s not true.” Our brains receive relational and emotional pain the same way. And this is one of the reasons we speak of emotional hurts in physical terms. So someone you love says something to you that is hurtful and you say, “I feel like I got punched in the gut”. A relationship that you value breaks up and you say, “Feels like my heart is broken”. So a friend of yours betrays you and you say “I got stabbed in the back”. That’s how it registers with you. Now here’s the point. When you get hurt physically, your body registers that pain in the same way that your brain registers relational and emotional pain. Mmmm.

Have you ever felt the emotional and relational pain of disappointment with GOD? A time you may have asked Him to help and things got worse? Why didn’t He protect? Why didn’t He provide? Why didn’t He heal? It seemed like there were really no great answers and you started to give up on God? Maybe you are in that place today or you know someone who is?

I want to invite you to join me as we continue in our message series, “Don’t Quit” and look at a people in the Bible, who were getting discouraged and disillusioned and ready to quit on GOD! GOD had a word for them and He has a word for us.