One of the most difficult endeavors is to wait on God’s provision.  I know that there is a huge temptation for all of us in ministry to just go out and make things happen for God.  The problem is that in doing that we leave God out of our plans.  Ministry just becomes what we can scheme or pull off.  There is very little room for the invisible God to direct or interfere with our work.  Instead of ministry we are left with a church business.

Henry Blackaby talks about seeing God at work and joining Him.  That is an amazing view of ministry.  Coming to a realization that God is at work all around us and if we choose to follow his leading he will make what we are doing flower and produce great fruit.  The scary thing about seeing God as the primary cog in our ministry is that you have to wait on his timing and provision.  

God’s timing and his provision is usually what I fret about most.  I want God to provide on my timetable and in the way I want him to work.  But God isn’t a predictable and controllable being.  Thats what makes serving him so exciting.  I was reminded about this the other day.  We were excited about starting a new ministry in our church.  We felt that God was leading us in starting this ministry but the catch was we didn’t have the money or volunteers to pull it off. 

We decided to wait on God’s provision and pray about it instead of pulling it off ourselves.  It has been so exciting to see God work in this time of waiting.  It has been a couple of months of us waiting on God but in that time we have seen God donate the equipment, and volunteers we needed.  We just needed some computer software to be able to pull it off.  Last Friday, I got a message from an old friend who told me God had laid it on his heart to provide the computer software we needed and he purchased it for us within the hour.

Through all this I have been humbled.  I got a chance to see God once again as provider and his way of providing was so much better than my sterile plans.  So the tip is this:  prayer and waiting on God is the best way to find success and fulfillment in ministry.