IMPATIENCE OR FAITH?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer
him by dreams or Urim or prophets. Saul then said to
his attendants,
“Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and
inquire of her.” “There is one in Endor,” they said.
(1 Samuel 28:6-7)

MEDITATION:
How do you respond when God doesn’t answer your prayers on your
time table? Do you patiently accept that your timing is wrong and
wait on His? Do you decide to take things into your own hands? Do
you start looking for advice from others? It is all a matter of faith,
isn’t it?
Faith says,
    “I trust God and will patiently wait”.
Self says,
    “Okay, if God isn’t going to answer, I’ll handle this on my own!”

From the scriptures above we can see that Saul chose not to wait.
When he didn’t receive what he expected from God as quickly as
he wanted it, he sought another source to give him answers.

He started out in the right way – He prayed. However, God didn’t
answer his prayer right away, and we see that he took the wrong
route and started looking for help from other sources, instead of
trustfully waiting on God with faith.

The people had selected Saul as their new king, and at thirty years old,
with a new purpose and associated responsibilities, he wanted to be the
type of king that would make good decisions and to be respected by the
people.

However, when we look at 1 Samuel 13:8-12 we can see a problem with Saul’s
focus. God had a plan that included Samuel coming to Gilgal to properly make
offerings to seek the Lord’s favor against the Philistines. But, when Samuel was
late in arriving, Saul decided to take matters into his own hands, and make the
offerings to the Lord, instead of waiting on Samuel.

When Samuel arrived he asked Saul,
    “What have you done?”
Saul replied,
    “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not
      come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling
      at Mikmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down
      against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’
      So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

When Samuel asked him what he had done, Saul admitted
that he was influenced by what he saw, and not by faith in
God and His plan. He showed his impatience when he said
to Samuel,
    “you did not come at the set time”
And he also admitted that since Philistines were poised to attack,
and Samuel was not there to seek the Lord’s favor, he felt compelled
to seek the Lord’s favor himself.

Then Samuel told Saul about the consequences of his impatience
and his lack of faith in God’s plans:
    “You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said.
    “You have not kept the command the LORD your
      God gave you; if you had, he would have established
      your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your
      kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a
      man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of
      his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command.”
      (1 Samuel 13:13-14)

Living by sight and impatience was a pattern for Saul; living by faith
was not. He failed to understand that living by faith would be blessed
by God, but with a faith in one’s self would not be blessed by Him.

I saw this somewhere, and it describes Saul’s actions:
    Saul saw a seer because of what he had seen.
    When Saul saw what he saw, he sought a seer
    to see what the seer would say about what he saw.

ACTION:
Again, the question to us is,
     “How do we respond when God doesn’t
      answer our prayers when we expect Him to?”
Going to God should be our first option and not our last. We need
to seek Him, be patient, and stay away from any advice that is not
from His Word.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, forgive me for the times I have failed
to trust Your plans and chose to resolve issues in my own
way. I know that Your plans are good and I need to accept
Your timing in all things. We live in a world that demands
immediate gratification and actions, so remind me that Your
plans may not align with the timing the world expects. Teach
me that by faith and trust I need to accept Your plans, rather
than trying to replace them with my own plans. Increase my
faith, trust, and patience as I await the fulfillment of Your
plans in all situations. Thank You for always being with me
and having plans for my life.”

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