A Devotional by Margot Cioccio
Psalms 37:34, Living Bible
“Don’t be impatient for the LORD to act!
Keep traveling steadily along his pathway and
in due season he will honor you with every blessing.”
Don’t be impatient for the LORD to act! There have been plenty of times where my impatience got the best of me and I have taken things in to my own hands, thinking I some how knew better than God. Those times generally ended in a mess or in consequences that I later regretted. There are often reasons why God makes us wait. Our motives may not be right, we may need to learn to trust him, other people or circumstances may not be in position yet. I think sometimes God uses that time to see if we really do want the thing we hope or desire. Will we hold on to hope or give way to depression and despair.
There are hopes and dreams that we should pursue but don’t out of fear and indecision, I’m not talking about those. We need to take faith and act on those - take the next step of faith and move forward. There is a balance in deciding if we are waiting because of fear and indecision or because God has really said for us to wait. When God says to wait it requires faith, patience, humility and courage. One has to believe that God is working while we are attending to the other things that he has given us to do. We have to learn to be in step with the Holy Spirit. Its like crossing a busy street with a child. We wait for the light to change and then we cross. To go before the light changes puts us and others in danger. To wait does not mean that I give up or stop believing that I will get to the other side of the street. A stop light in my path does not tell me to turn back or change directions. It just means stop and wait till it is time to cross. It is in seasons of waiting that we have to look with eyes of faith rather than manipulative hands. I don’t think when God calls us to wait that it means we just sit and do nothing, on the contrary there is usually plenty of things we can and should be doing. Sometimes our focus is on the future when it needs to be in the here and now. I think sometimes God is waiting on us to trust him, to accept his timing and his plan. Sometimes He waits for us to take a step of faith and then another, rather than being consumed with doubt, unbelief, worry and fear. We need to determine if it is a matter of being impatient for God to act or if it is a matter of your own doubt and fear that causing God to wait for us to act.
Are you traveling steadily along the path God has laid out for you or are you stuck and wallowing in a mud pit of sin or worry and doubt that you need to climb out of and get back to traveling steadily.
In due season he will honor you with every blessing. In the Bible we read the stories of the trials of faith that others faced. We know the endings to those stories, but we don’t know the ending of our own story. There is a good kind of structural tension created when we look at where we are now and where we want to be objectively. That tension helps move us towards the desired end. I know my story like yours has it difficult days and there will be things I don’t do very well. I hope however that the over arching theme of my life will be that I followed Jesus and that we walked together through both trials and blessings. That I pressed in to him and pressed on to over come the obstacles that I faced in my day to day journey with Him. I hope that will be true of you as well.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, Help me to not be impatient. Help me to see where I need to wait and trust and where I need to act and take steps of faith. Help me to travel steadily along the path you have laid out for me and to enjoy the blessings and special graces that you offer me in this day. I choose to walk in faith, trust, humility and courage, rather than in worry, doubt, unbelief and fear.
