Timing and Waiting
In this season I, and many of my friends are finding ourselves in a time of waiting and transition. I know that there is often waiting in transition…well, that’s where we are at. In my devotion this morning I was taken to Exodus 23:20-30. It talks about how God is going to give the land to the Isrealites. He doesn’t do it right away…there is a process involved. He has to rid the land of the enemy before they can take it. Verse 29 and 30 speak it right: “I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.”
It occurred to me on my first reading of this this morning…it’s not going to happen in a year! These people had been out in the wilderness many many years, and they still had more years to endure. But it’s not b/c God doesn’t want them to take the land, its just he opposite. He does want them to take possession of it. BUT, he wants it to be “perfect” when they take possession of it! This land isn’t going to sit desolate. The people aren’t going to be fruitless going into the land either. You might think, how can the timing happen when the people are fruitful and the land is clean enough for them to take? What does that look like? As one of the people, how do I get myself there? SO many questions…but I was pointed to one answer…2 Peter 3:9. It says He is patient with us. Plain and simple. HE IS PATIENT WITH US! Powerful words for one in a season of transition. Powerful for me, who is constantly asking the Lord in my heart, when Lord? How Lord? Show me Lord? Hurry Lord! I can’t wait.
And then I am reminded as I was today that He is patient with me. I am reminded that He has a way of doing things that are right, things that are true, and things that are the best! He doesn’t want us taking the land when it has been desolate with wild beasts. He doesn’t want us to take the land when we are fruitles and unable to maintain it. He wants us to take the land, when it is right!
