"I hate waiting..."

"In waiting, I waited, for the Lord." (Psalm 40:1, margin.)

"Waiting is much more difficult than walking. Waiting requires patience, and patience is a rare virtue. It is fine to know that God builds hedges around His people--when the hedge is looked at from the viewpoint of protection. But when the hedge is kept around one until it grows so high that he cannot see over the top, and wonders whether he is ever to get out of the little sphere of influence and service in which he is pent up, it is hard for him sometimes to understand why he may not have a larger environment--hard for him to 'brighten the corner' where he is. But God has a purpose in all HIS holdups. "The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord," reads Psalm 37:23.

On the margin of his Bible at this verse George Mueller had a notation, "And the stops also." It is a sad mistake for men to break through God's hedges. It is a vital principle of guidance for a Christian never to move out of the place in which he is sure God has placed him, until the Pillar of Cloud moves.

--from Streams in the Desert

Jesus knows what I need

Santa knows what I want for Christmas
but Jesus knows what I need
It can't be purchased, wrapped up, and placed
under an ephod tree

I need patience, kindness--virtues like these
to bend on my knee at the manger

Santa may bring things that last for a year
but eternal gifts come from the Savior

Some days come where I'm playing selfish
I can't think of no one but me
Then I think of all that I'm blessed with
and that it's always best to give than to receive

I need faithfulness, love, generosity
to open my home to a stranger

Santa may bring things that last for a year
but eternal gifts come from the Savior

I need patience, kindness, generosity
to bend on my knee at the manger

Santa may bring things that last for a year
but eternal gifts come from the Savior

Santa knows what I want for Christmas
but Jesus knows what I need
--Leigh Nash