.....patience

Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Exodus 32:1

Archibald Rutledge wrote that one day he met a man whose dog had just been killed in a forest fire. Heartbroken, the man explained to Rutledge how it happened. Because he worked outdoors, he often took his dog with him. That morning he left the animal in a clearing and gave him a command to stay and watch his lunch pail. A fire started in the woods, and soon the blaze spread to the spot where that dog had been left. But he didn't move. He waited right where he was and perished.

The Israelites, on the other hand, quickly grew weary of waiting. Moses had been gone only 40 days when they began to pressure Aaron to find "gods" that could lead them into the Promised Land. Their only thought was of the pleasures that awaited them in a land "flowing with milk and honey." They grew restless under the need to wait.

Christians face the same temptation. Often we are eager to get on with it. We have so much to do; so many tasks beckon us forward. We don't want to sit and wait, so we lurch forward with gods of our own making. We use our own wisdom and strength to try to reach goals that only God is adequate to achieve.

If you find yourself straining to go forward when God doesn't seem to be in a hurry, hold back and wait. Perhaps He has an entirely different plan for your life. Concentrate on what you must do now and let God move you ahead when the time is right.

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalms 27:14

-woodrow kroll