Isaiah 5:19  (Woe) to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the                                 Holy One of Israel-let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”

    Rearing children is, seemingly, a never-ending job. There is always something that needs done. One major role of a parent is that of teacher. Parents are always teaching their kids something. One thing that no parent ever had to teach their child was how to be self-focused. No, that comes quite naturally! We have to work to teach kids to expand their focus outward. But the temptation to be self-focused is always with us. We want to define the world around us and set our own terms. 

    In our relationship with God, we can be like that if we’re not careful. We have a tenden-cy to expect that God will do what we want Him to do, when we want Him to do it. We may live our life more distant from God than is good for us and be quite content. Doing our own thing without much interaction with God through the Bible or prayer. Until something goes wrong. Then we pick up the ‘red phone’ and contact heaven. “God, you need to do something now!” 

    The prophet Isaiah brought this into focus in today’s verse. He (through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) pronounced ‘woe’ upon this mentality. Read over the verse a few times and it makes one grow increasingly uncomfortable. The creature ordering the Creator. It shouldn’t be this way. Perhaps all of us have been in a restaurant when a customer decided that their food didn’t come soon enough and got loud and belligerent and began insulting and ordering the workers around. It never is a good look and always makes us feel bad for the employees. The essence of today’s verse is us doing that to an Almighty God!

    No one likes to wait. But we must learn to wait gracefully. We do that through trust. Trust God that He knows what is best. Trust God that He loves us. Trust Him that there is a reason that things happen the way they do and when they do. God is in control, so when we find ourselves in a situation, we should step back and consider it from His point of view. Is it possible that we are in a mess of our own creation? (If you’re anything like me, that’s entirely possible!) If so, then maybe we can work to undo what we’ve done.

    If it’s a situation for which we have no responsibility, (sickness, disease, evil in the world, etc.) then we must learn the patience which is implied by seeing today’s verse in the opposite. Like, “Blessed is the one who doesn’t say,…”

    The final week of 2022 is a great time to look forward. I am confident that God will al-low more situations into our lives that will give us opportunities to respond as loving, trusting followers and children of His. We can learn better! Let’s resolve to draw closer to Him in 2023 than ever before and do it by being in His Word! Trust me, He wants a closer relationship with you!

 

Blessings

Pastor Russ