GOD'S WAY

Troubling circumstances and fiery conditions can bring on confusion. At such times, our impatience begins to reason: "God must not have meant what he said to me. Or maybe the problem is my inability to hear his voice. Perhaps I heard him wrong in the first place. All I know is that what he told me and what I see developing don't add up."

When Saul moved ahead of God’s direction, he acted purely on logic and reason, not on trust. Listen to the string of excuses he gave the prophet Samuel for moving ahead of God's direction: "When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering" (1 Samuel 13:11-12). Saul took matters into his own hands, doing what he reasoned was his only option. And it ended in sorrow.

This matter of waiting is so important that we find references to it throughout God's Word. Isaiah writes, "It will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation" (Isaiah 25:9).

"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him” (Isaiah 64:4).

Beloved, God's way is not the world's way. And the only way to gain godly experience is to wait patiently for him in faith. This sort of godly experience comes to those who are in communion with the Lord: "Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope" (Romans 5:3-4).