In 1 Samuel 13, we read the story about Saul who was the King of Israel before David. Saul and his army were fighting the Philistine armies. The Bible tells us in verse 5 that the armies against Israel were more than could be numbered, so things looked rather bad for the nation of Israel. Now, of course, the Israelites had Almighty God on their side, and the Prophet Samuel told Saul to wait for him to arrive as he was the Prophet appointed by God, and could offer a sacrifice to God seeking a victory against the Philistines. Well, we read in verse 8 and following that King Saul got tired of waiting for Samuel to arrive, and so decided to take things into his own hands and offer the sacrifice himself. Well, as soon as he gave up waiting and took matters into his own hands, Samuel arrived. And read what Samuel told Saul in verses 13-14, “And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.”
Saul’s refusal to wait for God to work cost him his kingdom. Saul got in a rush and got tired of waiting for God’s timing of things and in doing so, he disobeyed and dishonored God.
How often do we do the same? We get tired of God not doing things when we want, we have people around us telling us, “Just make things happen!”, we stop trusting completely in God – and when we do, we like Saul mess things up.
We get tired of waiting for God to lead us to the right relationship. We get tired of waiting for God to open the right doors in our jobs or careers. We get impatient for God to take care of our problems. We get tired of waiting for God to provide for our needs, and so we step in and try to force things to happen. Many times we might even have good intentions when doing so – but when we try to force things to happen in OUR way and in OUR timing, we mess things up.
Isaiah reminds us in Isaiah 40:28-31 “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”
Psalm 46:10 reminds us: “Be still, and know that I am God”
God knows EXACTLY what He is doing. HIS timing is not dependent upon our understanding, but when we learn to TRUST HIM and WAIT for HIM to move in our lives and WAIT for HIM to make things happen – THEN we find that God’s ways are BEYOND our ways and HIS plans are ABSOLUTELY PERFECT EVERY TIME!
We live in an INSTANT SATISFACTION world, where we allow other people and even our own desires to dictate our lives. We too often get impatient and we want certain things to happen quickly – and we even have friends and family tell us we have to “MAKE things happen on our own!” But God says – TRUST ME! Seek to know HIM first in your life and obey what we DO know is right, and HE will lead us down the path that HE ALONE can orchestrate and understand. We can’t rush God! We have to learn to be patient and trust Him. Too many people mess up their lives because they get tired of WAITING for God and decide to RUSH things along.