But I want it now!

          As I have gotten older I realize that I am not as patient as I used to be. Over the last few months my family and I have driven to a few family reunions and I have noticed after being in the car a short time I am more than ready to be there. On the last trip my husband didn’t get to go and I was talking to him about how weary I was from being in the car and he said I was getting cranky in my old age. As I think back on that statement I think two things: one he is right and two he is brave. I think he felt brave enough to say it since he knew he was a couple hundred miles away from me and I had several days to forget what he said before I saw him again. We used to drive 12 hours straight through to see his family, but now I get in a car for more than 3 hours and I want to whine.

       Another area I find I can get impatient and I think I am not alone is being patient with God. We want God to do what we want, when we want, and how we want and when He doesn’t do it that way we get upset. If we aren’t careful while we are waiting for God to do what we want, we can start to think that God doesn’t love us or hear us.  We think that his lack of response is a reflection of how he feels about us personally. We think that God is only blessing us when we get everything we want and nothing bad happens in our lives. Sometimes there are things we just don’t see.

       In Luke 1 and 3 we read about John the Baptist. John was born for a purpose. He knew he had purpose from the time he was little. He was special. Before he was born his dad was visited by the Lord and told that they would have a son and that this son would be great in the eyes of the Lord. He was told John would have the spirit of Elijah in him and that he would prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. What a calling! John knew that he was a fulfillment of prophecy found in Isaiah. John was bold and confident and did what God wanted of him. He was even the one to baptize Jesus, but at some point John was thrown in jail for preaching against Herod. Sometime later we read in Luke 7 that while John was in jail he had been told of the things going on in Jesus ministry and he called two of his disciples to go and ask Jesus if he was indeed the Christ. Wait, how can he doubt?

       Can you imagine how John must have been feeling at this time? He had been this prophet- a prophet with the spirit of Elijah. Israel hadn’t had a prophet in many years. God had been silent, and then God put His spirit in John and he was able to go out boldly and preach repentance and prepare the way for Jesus. He saw the spirit descend on Jesus like a dove, he heard the voice from heaven say this is my son, but now John was in prison. To go from being so effective and walking directly in the calling he knew to be his and then to be stuck in jail and feel useless had to be tough. So tough that it made him wonder- is this really THE one. Is Jesus really the messiah we have been waiting for? If he is, then why am I here? Jesus in his awesome way says, yes it is me. Eyes are being opened, lame are walking, and the good news is being preached. And in Luke 7:23 Jesus tells them to let John know that God blesses those who do not turn away because of him. He was saying that even though God’s presence seems far away right now there will be blessing for not doubting because I am not doing what you think I should right now. You are blessed because you are not turning away because of what you perceive to be my activity or inactivity.

       How easy is that for us to do? We know the Bible. We know God’s word says that we should have our needs met. We know that it says in 2 Corinthians 9:8 that God will generously provide all we need. Then we will always have everything we need and plenty left over to share with others. We know that in James 5 it says the prayer of faith shall heal the sick and 1 John says that we have confidence in him that if we ask anything in prayer according to His will he hears us and grants us what we requested. So we know these verses, then how does it jive with the fact that sometimes our circumstances stink? We pray and we feel that God has not heard us, that He isn’t doing anything on our behalf. How can He love me so much, and I am still going through this?

       One place that we can see God’s purpose in a situation like this is with Hannah in 1 Samuel 1. Hannah wanted a son very badly. She prayed and cried year after year and still no son, then one day she was praying in the temple and told God that if He would give her a son she would give him back to God. She did this and Samuel became a very important person in the life of Israel. Very few people lived life as obediently as Samuel did and he led the people of God as a prophet and helped them in the time of transition when they took a king. It was very important for Hannah to dedicate her son to the Lord’s service, but God may have had to wait for the time that she was willing to do that. If she had had Samuel years before when she first wanted a baby and there was nothing special about his birth she would probably not have considered dedicating him to the Lord, so God knew the timing of Samuels’s birth and waited until the proper time. This may seem unfair, but if you look in 1 Samuel 2:21 you see that the wait was worth it for her because she went on to have 3 more sons and two daughters because of her obedience and waiting. Sometimes we don’t seem to get the things we ask not because God has forgotten us, but because He has something better for us at just the right time. In Hebrews 11 we have the faith hall of fame where God talks about many of the greats of the faith. Towards the end of the chapter it talks about how there were some who did not receive all that God promised His people because God had something better in mind for those still to come. Sometimes there are promises that God has for His people, but there is a greater reward if we can trust Him and be patient- and that reward might not be about just us.

       Jeremiah 17:7-8 says “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” We need to learn to trust God no matter what our circumstances look like. This verse tells us that when we make God our hope and confidence, when we have strong roots, that we won’t have to be bothered by the heat (the trials that come our way) or the long months of drought (the times God seem oh so far away), but as long as our roots are in Him our leaves will stay green. Even with the trials and even with the droughts He will take care of us and make sure we have everything we need. Another thing we need to do is when God keeps our leaves green it says that we won’t stop producing fruit. When you are going through a season where God seems inactive, the worst thing you can do is become inactive. If you feel like God is not listening to you and you decide to stop acting like a child of God your roots will start to shrivel and die and then you will not have the strength you need to stand.

       The times when God seems the most distant are the times that you need to plant your feet and really dig in. You cannot look at your circumstances to decide how God feels about you. It isn’t necessarily what you see God doing right now that shows how much He loves you, the proof of His love for you is in what he did on the cross. Take your focus off of your circumstances and put them on Jesus. Even if God never did another thing for you on this earth, the fact that He sent Jesus to the cross proves His love. Even if He hadn’t said in His word that he will give us everything we need on this earth, the promise that He has given us life with Him for eternity is amazing. When you feel like John did and that life seems stuck and you just can’t understand it, remember if you can trust God in the seasons that he seems inactive you will be taken care of.