Impatient with God
I think I found myself recovering from a busy weekend. Today was filled with a dentist appointment, fitness center work out massage. Normally that would be a day off for me or for you! Talk about adjusting to a new paradigm of life! I have thought recently, if my situation was one of being dependent upon the need for crutches to ambulate, but having the strength and energy I was use to, it would seem like I was experiencing just a “minor” adjustment in life. Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for the progress I have made and am making, but wanted share a little personal insight.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done! They wouldn’t wait for his counsel! In the wilderness their desires ran wild, testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland. So he gave them what they asked for…” Psalm 106:13-15 NLT
We live in a “microwave” culture and instant gratification society. We expect things to happen quickly and often grow impatient with the process. Perhaps that applies to spending and saving discipline, perhaps it applies to a pastor’s expectations for “church growth.” It can apply to a long waited promotion or raise, it can apply to changes we would like to see in ourselves or others. It can apply to a achieving a personal goal. But what happens when we grow impatient with God?! What happens when God isn’t talking, isn’t acting and we find ourselves waiting and growing weary?
The history of God’s people in the Old Testament becomes all to often a mirror for our lives today. The mistakes and sins they committed, are often replicated down to our present day. The questions they asked and the frustrations they experience are reflected in our lives today.
Psalm 105 and 106 are palms that retrace the history of God’s people. The Lord did great miracles to bring them out of captivity and to set them on course to the promised land. But the trek from “here” to “there” wasn’t a straight, trouble-free journey. They had to learn to trust God, obey God and wait on God. From their history we can observe…
When we become impatient with God it results in a “short memory.” After all the might miracles in Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea and turning bitter water sweet, it seemed God’s people felt like God has exhausted His powers. Did they believe the miracles had dried up like the desert sand? Had they become so familiar with the miraculous, they failed to see God in the mundane?
We can fail prey to the same “take-it-for-granted” mindset. We are thankful for the intervention of God’s divine power in supernatural ways, but can we be mindful of His presence in the daily affairs of our life. Our pastor recently presented the thought that when we get to heaven, we may become aware of God’s intervention in ways that we never knew that was happening in this life.
When we become impatient with God, we take matters into our own hands. If we don’t have God’s counsel, we rely on our own understanding instead of trusting and waiting on the Lord. We see things from our limited perspective and take actions that make us our own “god.”
For example, “The people made a calf at Mount Sinai they bowed before an image made of gold. They traded their glorious God for a statue of a grass-eating bull. They forgot God, their savior…” (Psalm 106:19-21 NLT)
An animal that eats grass, produces mile and provides meat, now become a god that people bow down to and worship and seek guidance from. That is a far reach from the God who created the universe that commands the sun, parts waters and displays His awesome power and glorious might. But any time we choose anything but God, we are settling for so much less, it might as well be an animal that we control and use for our purposes.
When we become impatient with God, He will allow us to have our own way. Contrary to the desires of many God doesn’t keep us from our own stupidity and actions. We can make decisions out of God’s will for our life. When we do it has consequences. In the wilderness the craving of meat by God’s people resulted in a miraculous supply of quail. But they ate to their own destruction as God’s judgment came on the people. One of the most dangerous places to be is to live life outside of desiring the Lord’s presence, guidance and provision.
Prayer for today… Lord, help us to have the patience that we need to wait for You to “speak,” to wait for you to act. May we always place You at the forefront of our lives and trust You, even when there is no evidence of Your actions. Remind us that You are “always at work” (John 5:17), even when we don’t see it or understand how it is taking place.