Part 13 (1/2)
As I've thought about the matter of human impatience, I've realized that impatience is the fruit of pride. The proud can't seem to wait for anything with a proper att.i.tude. It's as if they cry out, ”I deserve it-and I deserve it right now.”
I want to point out something from the words of James 5:7. G.o.d doesn't say, ”Be patient if you wait,” but, ”Be patient as you wait.” He uses the beautiful example of farmers. They prepare the soil and plant the crops, and then comes the season of waiting. They know in G.o.d's time, the crops will produce, and they also realize it's a different growing season for tomatoes than it is for wheat. They know waiting is necessary for harvest, so instead of making themselves miserable while they wait, they enjoy the time in between seed planting and harvest. You can make a decision to do the same thing.
We need to enjoy our lives now-right now while we wait. So many people complain about wasting time (which is how they talk about waiting). Instead of pacing and grumbling about how long we have to wait in line at the grocery store or the traffic congestion on the expressway, what if we said, ”Thanks, G.o.d. I can slow down now. I can enjoy this moment. Every second of my life doesn't have to be busy, busy, busy”?
The psalmist said it this way: ”My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my foes and those who pursue me and persecute me” (Psalm 31:15). This was the prayer by a man in a desperate situation. His enemies were out to kill him. Still, he didn't panic, but said, ”My times are in Your hands.”
Isn't that how G.o.d wants you to live? Your life and your times are in G.o.d's hands. Doesn't it follow then, if you're facing delays and have to wait, G.o.d knows? He's the One Who controls the clock of life. ”My times are in Your hands.” That's the way G.o.d wants us to live-and to enjoy the waiting time. Don't focus just on reaching your desired destination. Focus on the journey and be determined to relish the moments G.o.d gives you to relax, and enjoy them as a gift from G.o.d Himself.
CHAPTER 53.
Too Hard?
Please make everything easy and simple for me, dear G.o.d. I don't like to struggle, and I want constant victory without exerting any effort. Let me go on my way as I let You do everything to keep me secure.”
I have never heard anyone pray those words, but I have heard people ask for an easy life in prayer. Too many people want victory without battle, triumph without effort, and ease without labor. G.o.d's world simply doesn't function that way. After thirty-three years of ministry I have never had a person ask me to pray they would be able to endure their difficulty with a good att.i.tude. They always want their problems to go away; and looking at it naturally, that makes sense. We all probably feel that way until we learn that some of our greatest blessings come out of our challenging times in life.
Too many people want victory without battle, triumph without effort, and ease without labor. G.o.d's world simply doesn't function that way.
”It's just too hard.” I wonder how many times I have heard people say that. I wonder how many times Joyce Meyer has said that. And I have. There was a time when I tried to make a firm stand for following the Lord, but in my heart (and often in my mouth) were the words, ”It was just so hard.”
G.o.d convicted me of negative thinking. He taught me that if I would stop looking at the hards.h.i.+ps and obey Him, He would make a way for me. Deuteronomy 30:911, 14 tells us G.o.d wants to bless us and prosper from the work of our hands, but we must obey His commandments, and in verse 11, He a.s.sures us we can do it: ”For this commandment which I command you this day is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off.” The first time I saw that scripture it destroyed my lifelong excuse that what G.o.d was asking me to do was just too hard. Anytime G.o.d asks us to do something, He always gives us the ability to do it.
Because we spend so much time listening to the negatives and figuring out what can go wrong, often we forget the promise that His will is not too difficult for us. Instead, it may help if we expect our difficulties to actually work out for good. For instance, take encouragement from Joseph. After he spent years in Egypt and saved the lives of his family in Canaan, his brothers were afraid of him. Before that, they hated him, plotted to kill him, and sold him into slavery. After their father, Jacob, died, they expected Joseph to punish them. He could have done that and groaned about his hard life-and his life had not been easy. Not only was he sold as a slave by his brothers, but he was wrongly imprisoned and could have been put to death if G.o.d hadn't been with him.
Instead of saying, ”Life is so hard,” Joseph said, ”As for you, you thought evil against me, but G.o.d meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are this day” (Genesis 50:20). He understood how G.o.d works in human lives.
Joseph didn't look only at the hards.h.i.+ps; he looked at the opportunities. Joseph didn't listen to the whispering campaign of his enemy; he turned his ears to the encouraging words of his G.o.d. In no place do we read of him complaining. He saw everything that happened to him as something that would work out for good in the end.
Even in difficulty we need to remember G.o.d loves us and has a good plan for our lives. The devil likes to creep in to say, ”If G.o.d loves you so much, why are you in this mess?”
The best answer I can give is to repeat the words of Paul the great apostle: Let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hards.h.i.+p produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fort.i.tude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for G.o.d's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us (Romans 5:35).
G.o.d never promised us a life lived on easy street, but He does promise a blessed life.
CHAPTER 54.
Choosing the Right Response When you and I begin to break ourselves of any bad habit, we have a struggle on our hands. We have to fight within ourselves, crying out to G.o.d, ”Lord, help me, help me!” It is so wonderful to know that the Holy Spirit is always with us to help us all the time.
If you know you have given yourself over to some bad habit like emotional eating, when you sit down to the table you have to say within yourself, Holy Spirit, help me not to overeat. In a restaurant where everybody at your table is ordering dessert, and you can feel yourself starting to waiver, you can cry out inside, Holy Spirit, help me, help me!
I have found that if I depend upon my flesh through sheer willpower or determination alone, I will fail every time. But if I am determined to resist temptation by calling on the power of the Holy Spirit, I find the strength I need for success.
I have discovered that the Lord is not going to do everything for us in this life. We can't just find someone to pray for us to be set free from all our bondage. There is a part we must play with our minds and wills. It takes a combination of faith and action.
The apostle Paul said he did not take the grace of G.o.d in vain (see Galatians 2:21). He meant that he did not expect G.o.d to do everything for him without doing his part too. G.o.d gives us the ability to do what we need to do, but we must choose right action. We must keep our eyes on the Word of G.o.d and do what it says-not what the enemy causes us to feel like doing.
If you are going to be a person committed to the Word of G.o.d, you will have to learn to be led by the Spirit and not by your emotions. Whenever an emotion rises inside me, I test it to see if it is in line with the Word of G.o.d. If it is not, the Holy Spirit reveals it to me, and I resist it.
If you are going to be a person committed to the Word of G.o.d, you will have to learn to be led by the Spirit and not by your emotions.