Simply Wait on God! – Excerpt from “Behind the Chair”

By Cherie Jobe –
Listen. . . . Can you hear it? It’s the faint tinkling of music. A melody that you hear over and over again as you wait . . . and you wait . . . and you wait. You think it’s never coming. Then all of a sudden, it rounds the curve, into your neighborhood, and you begin to explode with excitement!

As a child, one of my favorite things in the summertime was to visit my aunt. She lived in the city, so it was a treat to go to her house. All the neighborhood kids would gather when the sounds of that notorious ice-cream truck would get closer. It was always worth the wait, when I could finally get my hands on that wonderful fudge popsicle. Ah, I can almost taste it now.

I hate to wait. I believe it is one of the most difficult things to do. It always seems like the more I want something, the harder it is to wait. Whether I am waiting for a taxi, a phone call, or maybe an answer to prayer, it’s never easy.

The Bible is full of stories where people had to wait forever. In Genesis 17 Abraham and Sarah had to wait, and in Genesis 30, Rachel and Jacob had to wait too. We need to remember that God’s timing is different than ours. He sees things from a different perspective, because he understands the big picture.

As we deal with the pressures of daily living, one of the greatest challenges we face in life is that of mistaking our timing for God’s timing.

When a crisis arises in our lives, our natural human response is to take matters into our own hands and react accordingly, never giving any thought as to what God’s plan may be for our future. Learning to consult God first in these situations is a learned trait that requires much discipline on our part as Christ followers.

We have to look with confidence toward the journey He has for us, trusting that He will bring to pass the plan He has designed for you and me.

In his book God Will Always Be There for You, Robert Moment gives us three actions that will help you to wait patiently, and with faith, help you to know and believe that God will be there to help.

1. Trust: Scripture tells us that God is unchangeable, which means He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. We can depend on Him to lead us on the right path. We must trust in His plan!

2. Resist: We must resist the temptation to take matters into our own hands. The safest place we can rest is in God’s will. When we rest here, resisting temptation is a lot easier.

3. Pray: How many times have we given a prayer request to God and felt like He was deaf? God always answers; it may not be the way we want or expect. During these times we have to keep on praying. It may be yes, no, or even something better.

One thing I have come to understand and believe, is we don’t need to understand the question, if the know the one who has the answers.

Many times along this journey I have been asked, “How did you get to the place where you were willing to write this book and to speak to hundreds of women about God’s healing and forgiveness?” Kicking and screaming, that’s how! You see, I always thought I had to keep my secrets. I thought if I told anyone where I’d been and what I had done; no one would ever look at me the same. Yes, it requires courage, but each one of us have the same opportunity every day to be a witness of our Lord’s healing love to a world of wounded hearts. Whether we like it or not, we are all God’s ambassadors if we wear the name Christian.

My prayer is that everyday you will become less broken and more loved as you experience the God who transforms lives from worthless into valuable, guilty into innocent, hungry into contented, and empty into full. In every situation you face, I want to encourage you to remember His grace, believe His truth, and seek His face. He’s the only One who can take your “Mess” and make it into “His Message.”

Saturday, 9:00 a.m., Lucy Davis
Describing Lucy is much like eating a Tootsie Pop, and the excitement you get when you reach the center. With every appointment, she has another life even to share. She’s a teacher, and we often find ourselves talking about how some children are disrespectful and lazy these days. But, most of the time we laugh about how clumsy and stiff we are getting. But, she always seems to greet life’s roadblocks with a smile. Read on to find her source of strength!

I have to confess, when I was asked to share my story, my heart immediately started to race. Not because of excitement, because of the fear that I would have to take off my mask, and share the truth about my life.

I basically grew up an average American girl from Huntsville, Alabama. We lived in a modest neighborhood, and as an only child I spent lots of time playing outside with my imaginary friend. My father was never at home a lot, which made me always wonder how my parents could fight and argue so much. Being the only child of an overly protective mother, I always looked forward to going to my cousins’ house.

As a child I always loved sports. Of all the sports I played I had a passion for volleyball. I felt the excitement in every play. Running up and down the court gave me such freedom from the real world. Eventually everyone outgrew me, so I became the manager for the team, all four years elementary and high school years just flew by. So I woke up one day, and it’s time for college.

College was the beginning of a new life. It was where my faith and the temptations of college would collide and eventually lead me to make choices that would alter the course of my life. In high school I dated this guy for almost all four years. We broke up right before I started to college. The first week of college I met a boy I thought was gorgeous, smart, and funny all rolled into one. Life was good!

For three and a half years, Tim and I dated. There were red flags in this relationship, but I chose to ignore them. You know girls; we believe we can change anything that’s wrong with our man. I had waited for twenty-two years to marry. I knew this was the guy who God had made for me. So, we married in 1982. After we both graduated, we moved to Athens, Georgia. Life was very turbulent; we fought about everything. We didn’t realize how different we were until I found out he wanted crunchy peanut butter, I wanted smooth, he wanted his jeans pressed, and I wanted mine folded. It was crazy!

We had our first child in 1987, and we moved into our first home the same year. Our second child came in 1989, and I thought our life together was absolutely wonderful. The key word here is “I.” Tim’s job began to take him away from home a lot. He was the athletic director and coach for his school. I began noticing that he was leaving the house for strange reasons. He would go out for donuts or to the store at strange hours. Later I found out he had become addicted to pornography. His strange behavior was because he was either taking back or picking up movies. I had no clue this was going on!

While trying to keep our marriage together, we became very involved in church. Tim’s mother died in 1991, so I thought he might want to move back to Tennessee to be with his father. He wasn’t very interested, which seemed very strange to me. Later I learned that he was having an affair with a woman at work.

He had been talking to her during his mother’s illness because she had lost her mother, and she understood him more than I could. No wonder he didn’t want to move!

Our third child came in 1992, followed by our fourth child in 1997. I remember so well thinking, How could this be happening to me? Emotionally, I checked out after finding out about the affair.

Now having four children, I decided it was time for me to forgive Tim, and see if we could get back to the point when we first met, sharing with each other, being constant companions—you know how you are when you are first in love. When I told him my thoughts about working on our marriage, he surprisingly said he didn’t want to work on it.

In February 2005, I learned why he wasn’t interested in working on the marriage. As I was doing some household cleaning one day, I came upon some letters. Much to my surprise I didn’t recognize any of the content. They were filled with passion and excitement, something I had not felt in a long time. I knew at that moment, those words were not addressed to me. I confronted him later that evening, and he confessed to all the affairs, many I never knew of. Looking back on my life with Tim, I now can see the signs of betrayal. He never wanted me to go places with him, he was always up late at night on the computer, he was very secretive of his personal belongings, and many, many unexplained absences. After many long nights, waiting, and crying out to God for direction about what to do, we finally divorced in 2007.

This experience has been the most heart-wrenching thing I have ever experienced. With that said, I believe there are many women who are walking down similar roads. I want those women to know that my strength to endure such pain has come only through my faith in Jesus Christ. In the days when loneliness was my constant companion, I remembered God’s great promise to me in Hebrews 13:5: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” I believe that no matter how painful or difficult my situation is, God is always there. I know I can look to him for deliverance when I commit any situation to his care.

Through a series of heartrending secrets, Cherie Jobe offers the gifts of hope and wisdom, teaching how to be content, peaceful, and strong, even during the bad hair days of life. Her 30 years behind her hairstylist’s chair have given Cherie volumes to share.

Having learned the “hard knocks way,” Cherie offers friendship, candid humor and wise counsel when clients reveal childhood tragedies, relationship troubles, and deeply hidden hurts. In shared stories of secrets no longer feared, these ordinary people find extraordinary strength in hope, love and forgiveness.

To learn more about Cherie or to purchase her book go to: http://www.cheriejobe.com/index.php/books.