Tag: Patience

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Do Nothing

Daily Reading

1Chronicles 15-17

Daily Thought

David had learned to trust God when he had something to do, something to accomplish, something to conquer. When he was young, David stood before Goliath, a giant warrior, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head” (1Samuel 17:45-46). Such was David’s faith and God was with him. David learned to seek God before each battle, as he did in his most recent, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up, and I will give them into your hand” (1Chronicles 14:10), and David trusted God and fought the Philistines and won.

David intended to build a house for God and this was a good intention–“Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent” (1Chronicles 17:1). David had a house; God didn’t have a house. Build him one. Nathan the prophet agreed, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you” (1Chronicles 17:2). Then God visited Nathan and said, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in’” (v 4). For David, a man of action, a hands-on guy with a vigorous faith, “Do nothing” may be most difficult to hear. Sometimes the hardest thing God wants us to do is nothing. David must trust God when he has nothing to do, nothing to add or accomplish. 

“Be still and know that I am God.” ~Psalm 46:10

So David trusted God and did nothing.

Daily Prayer

Lord God, You delight in me. There is nothing I can add to Your worth or Your wealth. You have no need of my offerings or my sacrifices. You desire them, not for Your gain but for mine. When I give I gain. My faith and trust grows. My relationship strengthens.

All that I am, God, comes from You. I am happiest when I pursue what You have created me to do. Take my desires God and shape them to Your will. You delight in me. I long to delight in You. May I listen to You.

Amen

Daily Question

Is it easier for you to accomplish something for God or wait patiently for God to do his work?

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A Better Idea

Daily Reading

Ecclesiastes 1-4

Daily Thought

Remember the 1960’s jingle, “Ford has a better idea”? Truth is, we all have a better idea, at least we think so, and that is the point of Ecclesiastes. We all want to eat, drink, and be merry (Ecclesiastes 2:24, sort of), and we think we know how. Actually, we do know how and therein is the problem. We eat and drink and work and play to fill a void and find meaning, and it is a poor substitute for what God has in store for us. It is meaninglessness. It is vanity; “vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Our better ideas bring instant, but not enduring, gratification, no wonder or beauty, which is what God has in mind.

We live for the moment, for the immediate, life “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:3), life without regard for God; yet God has put eternity in our heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). God has established a time for everything; a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, build up, weep, laugh, mourn, dance, cast away stones and gather them again; a time to embrace and refrain, seek and lose, keep and cast away; to tear, to sew, to keep silence, to speak, to love, to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace (Ecclesiastes 3:2-8).

Perhaps the most difficult, but the most vital of all of God’s commands is, “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7), because “he has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11), not ours. God has a better idea.

Daily Prayer

My God, I desire to live a life not focused on pleasure, but on purpose; not for now, but for forever. God, thank You for placing eternity in my heart, for creating me in Your image with Your delights and Your desires. May I always live for You.

Teach me patience and endurance, to wait on Your plans, to endure hardship and suffering, and to discover Your joy and the beauty of Your ways.

Amen

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In His Time

Daily Reading

1Samuel 13-14

Daily Thought

Have you noticed how often God is late? God and I have this disagreement. I think “now” would be a good time, but God thinks later. Later is usually better, but that’s not how I calendared it. God has an agenda, and all too often it’s not the same as mine, and that’s my problem.

I’m not alone in this. Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus was dying. Hurry, they urged him. He waited, instead, two days longer. Both sisters accused Jesus, “If you had been here…”; but Jesus had a better plan, “I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe” (see John 11:1-44).  Peter observes that the whole world thinks God is late, and scoffs, “Jesus said he would return. Where is he?” But God has a better plan, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (see 2Peter 3:1-9). The writer of Hebrews calls God’s people to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12).

King Saul had little patience, and thus showed less faith. Saul was anxious to fight the Philistines, but Samuel was yet to offer sacrifices to God before the battle. Seven days passed and Samuel, and therefore God, was late. It was time for war, so Saul wrongly offered the sacrifices himself. Then Samuel showed `up and said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart” (1Samuel 13:13-14).

Unless we learn to trust God and wait on his timing, we will never experience his better plan. Being obedient is more important than being on time. Saul failed to learn this, but a couple kings later, a wise King Solomon observed, “God makes everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Not ours.

Daily Prayer

God, Your ways are not man’s ways. By faith, I follow You. I trust You and I will jump when You call. I will also wait until You say to go. I know if it is according to my strength and my wisdom, then I am in danger of taking credit. Therefore, God, not by my strength, nor my wisdom, but I submit to You my heart and my soul, and I will follow You in faith.

And You get the glory.

Amen

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Law of Stickiness

Daily Reading

Exodus 30-32

Daily Thought

The Hebrew people watched as God showered plagues of frogs and flies and fire, blood and boils and death. Ten plagues it took to convince the Pharaoh of Egypt to heed God’s demand to “Let my people go” (Exodus 5:1; 7:16; 8:1, 8, 20, 21; 9:1, 13; 10:4), until he changed his mind and the Egyptian army boxed the Israelites against the Red Sea. So God parted the sea and the Hebrew people escaped, then closed the sea and the Egyptian army drowned. This is the Exodus and it was amazing. It would have made a great movie. The people of God had been delivered from slavery and were heading toward the Promised Land. It was the kind of thing you never forget. 

You would think. 

The Hebrew people watched as God showered plagues of frogs and flies and fire, blood and boils and death. Ten plagues it took to convince the Pharaoh of Egypt to heed God’s repeated demand to “Let my people go” (Exodus 5:1; 7:16; 8:1, 8, 20, 21; 9:1, 13; 10:4), but then Pharaoh changed his mind again and the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites and boxed them against the Red Sea. So God parted the sea and gave the Hebrew people an escape, then closed the sea and drowned the Egyptian army. This is the Exodus and it was amazing. It would make a great movie. The people of God had been delivered from slavery and were heading toward the Promised Land. It was the kind of thing you never forget. 

People have short memories, They are impatient and fickle. They were then and they are now. For example, a good web site designer knows the first law of the web, The Law of Stickiness: People are sticky, but they are not loyal. If they find a web site that serves their needs they stick with it, but the moment that site disappoints (by being slower than usual or temporarily unavailable), they move to the competition. The Law of God says, “I am the LORD your God. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3); but the Law of Stickiness says God must improve his performance or we will make a golden calf.  

There is a problem, however, the golden calf is not really an alternative. “Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other” (Deuteronomy 4:39). The LORD alone is God. There is no competition. And that means, you do not seek an alternative, you do not switch to a golden calf. You wait. If God is late (and God is always late), wait–“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope” (Psalm 130:5). God is often slow just so I will wait, so I will learn to wait. How much beauty I miss because I do not wait, because he makes all things beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:10), not mine. 

Daily Prayer

My Father in Heaven, how I trust in You. My confidence is in Your goodness and Your strength. My life is in Your care. I know that You offer life, life overflowing, abundant life.

May I always seek You first. May I always seek You only. Your kingdom with Your Son on the throne is my greatest hope. May I at all times maintain loyalty to You, keep faith in You, wait on You, trust in You. You are God.

Amen