Impatience
1 Samuel 13:9, “So Saul said, “Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10 As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came ; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him.”
I can empathize with Saul here! I think all people can understand the anxiety and nervousness that Saul was going through. The Bible tells us that the Israelites were in hard position. They might have been able to see and hear the Philistines as they closed in, and many of the people were beginning to leave because Samuel had not come to make the offerings to God. So, Saul in an effort to calm the people assumed the position of priest and made the offerings himself, but as soon as he finished Samuel showed up. Samuel immediately asked Saul what had he done, and in a normal human reply Saul answered, “I did what I thought had to be done.”
That is a basic theme throughout the Bible. People get impatient waiting on God to act, and they take matters in their own hands; the end result is always harmful and winds up costing that person. We know that this was the beginning of the end for Saul’s reign as king over Israel. The impatience he showed here led to more and more destructive behavior, and he eventually fell so far from God that the kingdom was torn from his hands by God.
When Jesus came to this earth, many people saw the miracles that He performed; and believed that He was the Messiah sent by God, but when He did not act in their time that belief that they had in the beginning began to erode, and one by one they fell away from God.
Judas Iscariot was a close follower of Jesus. He was one of the twelve that Jesus hand-picked to spread the message of God’s love, but when Jesus failed to act according to his timeline Judas sought a way to do what he thought would benefit him.
A lot of times this impatient attitude betrays us like it did the people of the Bible. We live in an “instant society”; and we want everything now, but God does not always work according to our time-limited thinking.
II Peter 3:8-9 says, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
Many times we get the attitude with God like we’re at a fast-food drive thru, and we want our order now, but sometimes God delays our requests in order to bring greater glory for Himself!
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Father God, I thank You for loving me, and I ask that You would help me to guard against impatient attitudes that lead me away from You. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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The image above can be found at:http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/energy-efficiency-comes-to-fast-food/
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