Living with God 5

Lesson 5 (Be patient)

This post is about having patience, something that has taken me a long time to learn, yet a lesson worth learning and one I am constantly having to learn.

Deuteronomy7:22 "And the LORD your God will put out those nations before you by little and little. You may not destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you."

Patience is something quite a few of us lack. In a society that has grown up where every thing is provided 'on tap' , where we can easily get what we want when we want we have developed a society that has very little patience, this culture has permeated our daily lives to such an extent that we no longer are able to make good decisions, invariably we make hasty decisions based on not thought out plans. Well that's me anyway.

As we saw in the last post, God is a faithful being. Therefore it follows that He will also grant us the ability to be patient and wait His timing.

This verse tells us that it is God who fights the battles yet so often we think and act as if they are our battles. It is not, or never has been, God's intention give us a land that is an utopia. He never promised a land of ease just a land of abundance and plenty. Life is lived in the flesh by and through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, a spiritual life lived out in a world of indifference, a place where we recognise that the battle is the Lord's, yet one where we have authority to destroy the evil one.

God specifically says to the children of Israel "I will put out those nations before you, little by little." Or in other words "I will claim the uninhabited places for you"

So often we want to run ahead of God's plan for our lives and all we end up doing is thwarting the very thing that God wants to accomplish in our lives, that of a complete life that honours Him.

This is a promise and at the same time a warning. We can read of instances when the children of Israel just forged ahead with out God's blessing and ended up in a worse position than when they set out.

God wants us to exercise patience so that we can prove Him faithful and true.