FAITH: Waiting is teaching us more than we realize

Published 12:26 am Saturday, October 10, 2020

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Brad McKenzie

“When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.””

Exodus 32:1 NLT

 

Waiting is unavoidable in life. We wait for all kinds of blessings, events, and even dangers. How we manage waiting often determines our attitude and outlook. That is just as true when it comes to waiting on God!

Let’s establish this, God has an eternal plan and purpose for creation, history, and our personal lives. The same is for the Hebrews the Lord had liberated from slavery in Egypt though the leadership of Moses. The people had been commanded by God, through Moses, to wait for the Word of the Lord to come down to them. This Word would become the essence of who they were abs how they would live.

The problem for the people, the Word was not coming as fast as they would have wanted it. So they did something we are still tempted to do today, take things into our own hands!

What is interesting is the people didn’t decide they needed to just move on without Moses, or simply settle down and make a new life, they asked for “gods who can lead us!” When Moses, and the Lord for that matter, had not worked within their timetable they wanted fake gods to give them direction and lead them. As we read this, we can express our surprise and even contempt for these actions, but we are not exempt in our own right.

What I believe happened here is the power of influence, but influence not necessarily positive. So often there is a vocal minority in every group who believes it is their job to inform the majority of the problem and a quicker or better solution. Someone stated to complain it was taking too long and something needed to be done. When we refuse to wait on the Lord and rush to do things in our way and in our timing, we will always choose a way or path equal to asking for fake gods to lead! Waiting on God is not about patience, it is about trust!

Maybe the waiting in our lives has as much to do with the Lord teaching us to trust Him as it does with us leaning to be better as waiting. Maybe the waiting has little to do with us and has more to do with what the Lord may be doing in the life of someone else. Maybe the waiting is being used to help us be open to what God has in store for our future. Whatever the reason, God still has a plan and a purpose in the midst of human waiting. We must decide if we will trust Him and not seek out fake gods to lead us when we become impatient!

As we wait for God, we are learning to trust more and more in the only One who will never fail us!

That is Good News!

 

Rev. Brad McKenzie is Lead Pastor at Orange First Church of the Nazarene, 3810 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Orange.