Impatient!

Numbers 21:4-5

Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”

Charlie wrote about his experience as a kid growing up in the American south and planting peanuts. Because peanuts are tubers that grow on the roots beneath the ground, you cannot see how well they’re developing. So being an impatient kid, he decided to dig them up to see how they were doing. Well, they were doing fine. So he shoveled them back into the hole and tamped the ground firm. A month or so later, he went to harvest them. How disappointed he was. Many of the peanuts had died and the rest were shriveled and misshapen.

I’m not the world’s most patient guy. My kids used to say, “Dad stands in front of the microwave and says, ‘Hurry up, I haven’t got all minute!’” Stinkin kids…

Like Charlie impatiently digging up his peanuts and ruining them, how many of us have gotten impatient with God and missed out on his blessings?

The Israelites were impatient, and it got them on the wrong side of God.

God’s timing is not at all like ours. God planted a vision for a different kind of church in my heart. I could see it, I could feel that it would be an incredible place of worship, teaching, and healing.  It was going to be awesome!

It took ten years of tending that vision for it to come to fruition. Ten years! Take that, microwave!

Then it happened. Crossroads was built out of that vision, and then Remnant. My years at Remnant have been the most fruitful of my ministry. I just had to wait for it.

What is God putting in your heart? Let it grow, foster it, but wait for God’s time. You won’t regret the time you spent waiting, but you will definitely regret hurrying it.

Today’s Readings: Numbers 21-23; Mark 6,7

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