6-10-2014

 Good Morning All,

        Psalm 40:1; “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.”

     In South Dakota, we have two seasons, winter and road construction.  Winter is over so we have road construction popping up all over the place.  There is road work on one of the major highways here.  The two lane is only one lane so you wait, for three minutes to pass through.  Now you would think that three minutes would be nothing.  Yet yesterday morning we came to an intersection with that highway and there was a convoy of vehicles. There were about 8 or 9 National Guard vehicles going to maneuvers, there were 4 or 5 semis and about 8 cars or pickups.  I was wondering if the cars that were behind the National Guard and the semis thought three minutes wasn’t very long.

     We are a people that does not do “patience” well.  Our internet speed has to get faster and faster, we microwave most of our meals because the oven is “just so slow.”  If we wait 10 minutes in a restaurant, we either leave or complain; or both.  So we look at God and his promises and we complain that they are not happening.  Why can’t God get this done more quickly?  What is going on?

     We can really be amazed when we think back to when we mailed letters to each other and it took days for a letter to arrive and then days for a reply letter to arrive.  If we don’t get an email in a few hours, we few slighted and stood up.  We do not wait patiently for anything, yet if we read Scriptures, we need to see that God works in his time for his purposes.  Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah.  He prayed for her for to have a son and he was 60 when she gave birth.  He waited patiently for 20 years.  God told Abraham that his descendants would be afflicted (enslaved) for 400 years before he would bring judgment on the oppressors.  Now that would require patient waiting!!

    Even now, we have waited almost 2000 years for Christ to return.  We often wonder why?  Why does God wait so long?  First, for God it isn’t a long time.  Secondly, God tells us that he is patient so that the lost may be saved.  He wants all to be saved, for all to hear his words of forgiveness and salvation.  Not all will listen, some have hearts too hard to hear.  But God gives them time to heal and time to repent.  He waits patiently for man to return to him in prayer and thanksgiving.  He longs for us to live in his kingdom.  So God gives us what we always say we want, “more time!”  Yet time does move and, eventually, ends.  So we wait as well, knowing that God is in control and trusting his promise that he will take care of us.  We trust his promise; that is what faith means.  We trust God to be faithful to his promises.  We trust that he has always kept his promises and always will.  We wait and we trust in God’s grace.

Father of all mercy, we struggle with patience, we struggle with waiting.  We see things only through our own eyes and our time.  Give us the strength to trust your will.  Guide us by your Holy Spirit.  Help us to be patient.  Keep us in your loving arms.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret