Patience Part Four
By Johnny Angel
We have been looking at patience. But today, let's take a look at
impatience. When we are impatient with God and His timing, it can
cause problems.
King Saul is another person we can look at for an example of
impatience. At the time, God was speaking through the nation of Israel
through the prophet Samuel. Samuel told Saul to wait before he took
any further military action. Saul did not accept Samuel's advice. As a
result, God appointed someone else to be the king after Saul rather
than someone from his own family line.
We can learn from this that we do not need to act on our own and try
to take things into our own hands. When we don't seek God's
guidance, He may choose to use someone who will see His will. And
we will become unhappy like Saul did because we are not in God's will.
Just remember, though, we can always repent when we've done
wrong. Every time the word repent is used in the Bible, the Greek or
Hebrew word indicates stopping where you are at and completely
turning around and going the other way. If we sincerely admit to God
that we realize we are going the wrong way with things because we
have not asked for or waited for His guidance, and we abandon the
wrong thing we're doing in order to pursue what God wants us to do,
God will be able to use us again.
As an example of this, we can look at the person God chose to be the
king after Saul. David is known as a man after God's own heart. At
one point in his time as the king, he commited adultery. He was not in
touch with God at all during this time. But once he realized his sin and
turned to God, he completely turned around and began communicating
with God again. We can read in Psalm 51 of how genuine repentance
should be. We should admit to God that what we have done is awful,
ask His forgiveness, and then have a desire to help other people and
lead other people to the Lord.
Moses is another example of impatience. Before he allowed God to
use him, he tried to take situations into his own hands. He killed an
Egyptian who was mistreating some other people of his race. A few
days later, he tried to stop an argument between some people of his
own race. They snapped at him asking if he was going to kill them like
he did the Egyptian. Moses had to run off into the desert and live there
around forty years. He reached the point where God could use him,
and God spoke to him through a burning bush. As a result, God was
able to use Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. Moses tried to free
the Hebrews 40 years earlier, but it didn't work. When God saw that it
was the right time to free the Hebrews, He called Moses to do it and
gave Moses the ability to call on Him to perform great miracles.
God can use us a lot better when we are patient with Him and wait to
do things when it is the right time to do so!
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please pray for me--I'm having some pain in my wrists which will effect
my ability to type and do a lot of the things I need to do at school and
at church such as using the computer, playing the guitar, etc.--it may
not be anything major, but I would appreciate your prayers
N Prayer,
Johnny <*}}}><