That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:12)
Patience is a huge factor in our being able to walk out the plan of God, but many people have never spent the time alone with God that is needed to develop in it. We often are so underdeveloped in patience that if God showed us His plan for our lives, we would take off like a rocket trying to make it come to pass. Impatience leads to dissatisfaction and we often become so dissatisfied with where we are that we are will, to take the steps needed to get into the will of God. Impatience is a disease that seems to have infected most people. It seems that everything is geared to instant satisfaction and the things of God are totally opposite. Time is needed to prepare the ground, plant the seed, and then to let it grow if we are going to fulfill the plans and purposes God has for us. He will often show us one step without showing us what is beyond that because we are not in a place yet where we will be able to embrace what He has planned for us. My wife and I recently purchased a new vehicle and God taught me a lot about this in a journey that took just at three years of believing God. The journey began with the Holy Spirit prompting me that it was time for my vehicle to be replaced. I could not get a witness on timing and began to spend protracted times praying over the new vehicle thinking that we would be taking action in just a few short months. The months turned into three years! It was just at twelve months of consistent prayer when He showed me the make and model of our car and I was shocked because it was much higher than I could have imagined myself driving. We have now had the vehicle for just over six months and in that time the Lord has shown me that if I had not taken the time to prepare my heart to receive His plan, He would not have been able to bless us with the vehicle. We would have ended up with something much less not because that was His plan but because we would not have been able to receive what He had planned for us. The things of God take time and we must be willing to plow the field by spending whatever time is necessary to immerse ourselves in prayer and in the Word. This will be not be easy because our flesh will fight us every step of the way. The old timers referred to this as “dying to self” but the phrase has fallen out of popularity for most Christians! Today we want to be entertained and have preachers who are treated like rock stars with people available to wait on their every need while they are on the road ministering in churches. This is not the model that Jesus gave us through His life and ministry.
So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. (Matthew 20:16)
It is not until we have come to a place of complete submission where our plans and purposes have been completely eliminated that we will ever be able to walk in the fullness of what God has planned for our lives. There must be time given to preparing the soil and this is why God usually begins to point us in the direction of His plan. He knows the condition of our heart and its ability to receive from Him. We waste countless hours crying out to Him for His plan when instead we should be preparing our hearts to position ourselves to receive everything that He has for us. God cannot show us everything at once because we are developed to the point where we are able to fully embrace His plan. Some people would be terrified, and others would run ahead of Him out of impatience. Impatient people will never stay the course which is why patience is required for us to walk out the plan of God for our lives. So, the reason for God delaying providing an answer to our prayer that He reveal His plan to us is that time is often required for Him to work in our hearts for us to be in a position of being able to receive His full plan. We miss God by seeking Him for guidance on what vocation He wants us to fill. Jesus does not want our service as much as He wants us! He loves us more than what we can do for Him. If we will back up and just seek Him, we will discover that His will is not for us to be a minister, a teacher, or any other type of vocation. His will is for us to become living sacrifices. When He has us as living sacrifices then how He will use us will be secondary! There are some who will read this book that have been seeking God for the vocation that He wants them to be in. They may have asked, “do you want me to be a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist” or some other vocation but have become frustrated by the lack of direction. I asked these same questions but discovered the answer was that He does not want our service as much as He wants us. He loves us more than what we do for Him. This is an important point to make because in our day and age it seems to be all about service. We hear preachers talk and talk about the need to ‘do’ something for the Lord and sing songs about being born to serve the Lord. There is a partial truth to the fact that we were born for His use and glory but we leave people with the message that God is concerned more about what we do for Him then us as individuals. This has led to a works mentality in the Church with people running around wearing themselves out trying to earn God’s love through their service. In a lot of cases we have become human doing instead of human beings relating God’s acceptance and love to our performance. If we are not out on the mission field or serving in our churches, we feel that God is not pleased because our relationship with Him has become all about what we do but this is not the way He planned our lives!
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MBDevotional 