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Here’s the promise: Wait patiently for the Lord to do what only He can do about your hopes and, if they are His will, He’ll act at the most appropriate time.
Here’s the problem: Waiting patiently can get old real fast if we don’t continue refreshing our faith in God.
Today’s reading in the One-Year Bible includes Psalm 37:1-11. The verses drive home the value of waiting for God to “take care of business” with people who torment believers and deliver blessings to people with long-term loyalty to Him.
King David, the likely writer of this psalm, said that the evil and wicked people would face a day of reckoning and would be swept away.
The patient and faithful, however, will shine like the noonday sun, will inherit the land and will enjoy great peace.
To Christians, that sounds great.
The problem is the “wait.”
It’s good that the psalmist wrote in verse 8, “Do not fret. It only leads to evil.”
Wow. That’s a strong statement.
It needs to be, though, because we humans — including the believers among us — are prone to impatience with God’s timetable.
We’re prone to fretting about an unfulfilled career ambition or a desire for children or a desire for a cushier life. Next thing we know, that fretting is prodding us toward decisions that aren’t based on faith.
And any decision that isn’t evaluated according to the purposes of God leads us toward making other decisions that don’t consider God’s plan or His Word or His people or His values.
With every unsatisfied desire, the believer moves closer to doubt and then denial regarding the authority and ability of God.
We might not be patient, but Satan certainly is.
He slowly and subtly places the bait of gratification tidbits on a path that leads us from trusting God over to trusting ourselves and the world’s lies. After all, look at all the cool stuff that many God-deniers have?
Eventually, when our impatience with God’s timing has grown into the delusional pride of thinking we are completely self-made, that’s when Satan reveals to us that we’ve actually been rolling downhill into his trap.
His hope is that our pride will then keep us from repenting and crying out to God for help.
Too many times for too many believers, Satan gets his way.
They don’t repent and cry for help.
They keep waiting for God’s Word to prove wrong.
It doesn’t have to be this way, of course.
It just takes patience.
God-inspired patience.
It just takes the confidence that God will do what is right at the right time for people who have the right attitude toward Him and His Son Jesus Christ.
Just as He has done for countless believers from Adam’s day until our own.
I’m in a season now requiring a great deal of patience in a number of ways.
Fretting and doubting and denying will do me no good.
Trusting that God sees my life, knows my needs and hopes and will act in the way best for me will do me a world of good.
Whatever the “land” of blessing is that God is preparing for me, I know it’s out there. I just have to wait patiently while He shapes me and shapes my future circumstances so that, together, the most can be accomplished for His Kingdom.
Verse 3 said it this way: “Trust in the Lord and do good.”
Simple advice.
Solid advice.
Let’s get at it.
Patiently.
As always, I love you
Martin
