Good morning. It is a beautiful day to worship our Lord, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Reading Deuteronomy 1:2 it tells you how long it should have taken for God’s people as they were escaping from Egypt to reach their destination, the Promised Land. It tells us that the trip should take eleven days. That was on foot, walking at a normal pace. But wait a minute, the Israelites were a complete community, with people of every age from the very elderly to the very young. Let’s double the amount of time, which would make it twenty-two days. I suppose one could argue that with the inevitable delays and inconveniences that are typical to all journeys it would take longer. Okay, let’s double it again and make it forty-four days. That’s six weeks, it would have been a long walk.
But it didn’t take the Israelites six weeks to enter the Promised Land, it took them forty years.
What they should have done, they refused to do. What they should never have said, they said all too often. They were stubborn, unreasonable, ungrateful, disobedient, and at times downright hateful towards the Lord. So, God determined that they needed some extra time to get their heads and their hearts right with Him. They needed to rethink some things, and God gave them the time and opportunity to get it right.
God does the same for us. When we feel that it is taking far too long for God to answer our prayers in the way we desire for them to be answered, perhaps we need to consider what lessons there might be in the delay. How is God working with us to ensure the best possible outcome? How is God, with His complete wisdom and understanding, protecting us from ourselves and our brash decisions and behaviors?
Consider Psalm 5:1-3 Listen to my words, Lord, consider my lament. Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.
The Lord does hear our voice, and it is right to bring our requests before Him. But when we do so, we must be willing to wait. We wait with expectation and with patience, trusting in the love of God which is guided by His wisdom.
Worship well today with voices reflecting the confidence we share in our God whose love is always poured out in the best possible ways and at the best possible time.
Vern