Mark Sorensen Mark Twain said the following in relationship to patience: “All good things arrive to those who wait – and don’t die in the meantime.”
There’s some truth to that, you know. Have you ever wanted something so badly that you just couldn’t wait for it to happen? Patience may be a virtue but it isn’t always an easy one. Yet, perhaps in the waiting, there’s a season of learning in which God wants us to grow. That’s what I loved about kicking off our “Battle Ready” series with the story of Joshua and the Israelites in Joshua 5. Here you have the moment that God’s people are stepping into the Promised Land to claim the promised place God had prepared for them, yet, the battle is not the first thing they encountered… it was actually two weeks of waiting. Why? Because God has lessons to teach them.
Perhaps you’re in a waiting season right now. Can I encourage you? Open your hands and ask, “Lord, what are You teaching me in this season of waiting?” Remember what we learned in last week’s Harvest message:
We must be a spiritually prepared people if we’re going to do the Lord’s work successfully and glorify His name. We may want to rush straight into battle, but we mustn’t forget that we’re also called to take the time to be holy.
I love the words that the Scottish Reverend Robert Murray M’Cheyne shared with a fellow missionary in the early 1800s who was going into the mission field to bring the Good News of Christ:
Remember you are God’s sword – His instrument – I trust a chosen vessel unto Him to bear His name. In great measure, according to the purity and perfections of the instrument, will be the success. It is not the great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A Holy minister is a powerful weapon in the hand of God.
See you Sunday, friends, for week two of our “Battle Ready” series!
