(Excerpt from: We Want What We Want and We Want It Right Now)
An unwillingness to wait, the tendency to force our way, is symptomatic of a trust problem. Isaiah 28:16 says, “Whoever believes will not act hastily.” The elders of Israel acted hastily because they were not believing. They had a trust problem.
We will always have a trust problem when we allow fear to boss us around. If fear dictates our actions, then fear – not Jesus – is our Lord. If we were honest, some of us would have to admit that in our hearts we have set apart fear as Lord and have been living in obedience to its word.
Jesus’s people must stubbornly refuse to be ruled by fear. But what if we are already ruled by fear? Then it is time for an insurrection. There must be an uprising; that is, we must rise up and listen to what God is saying and refuse to listen to our fears. It’s time to disobey our fears.
The elders of Israel obeyed their fears, not their God. And the result was that they were saddled with a king who was not qualified to lead, and whose competency decreased with age, rather than increased. Israel was thrown into an unnecessary civil war that lasted for years. People died. Families were divided. Misery was pervasive and God’s name was dishonored. And it probably took longer for them to get the good thing God had for them. Sometimes saying, “Now!” to God is as harmful as saying, “No!” to God.[1]
We get in trouble when we allow ourselves to get flummoxed and act out of emotion. The controversial University of Chicago philosophy professor Mortimer Adler was once part of a discussion group and the conversation was not going well. Opinions were expressed with which he disagreed. Things got heated, Adler got upset, left the room, and slammed the door behind him.
Trying to ease the tension, someone said, “Well, he’s gone.” But the host said, “No, he’s not. That’s a closet!”
When instead of waiting to listen and understand, we go rushing forward in an emotional welter, we’re liable to end up closeted from God and from our future. Israel did and the result was heartache and delay.
(This entire sermon will be posted for viewing later in the week.)
[1] Bill T Arnold, NIV Application Commentary: 1 and 2 Samuel. p.154
The Way Home 
“Jesus’s people must stubbornly refuse to be ruled by fear. But what if we are already ruled by fear? Then it is time for an insurrection. There must be an uprising; that is, we must rise up and listen to what God is saying and refuse to listen to our fears. It’s time to disobey our fears.”
AMEN!
“Following the second great awakening conditions in the United States deteriorated. The country was seriously divided over the issue of slavery, and second, people were making money lavishly.
In September 1857, a man of prayer, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a businessmen’s prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church Consistory Building in Manhattan. By March of 1858, every church and public hall in down town New York was filled.
Trinity Episcopal Church in Chicago had a hundred and twenty-one members in 1857; fourteen hundred in 1860. That was typical of the churches. More than a million people were converted to God in one year out of a population of thirty million.”
Dr A. T. Pierson once said, “There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.” (from Prayer and Revival by J. Edwin Orr)
Let’s find a way to work together across local churches (may be develop a covenant to discourage bad actors,etc) so we can unite in concerted prayer for an awakening in our ciities. God is faithful and as we trust in Him hearts we will see the results only He can bring. We don’t need a political or social movement. We need changed hearts and holy lives.
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Terry, thanks for sharing this. There is every reason to hope in the God of hope. Blessings!
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