Take 5 Minutes for God- Session 4

Do Not Rush Into Things-Patience-Expectations-Let God Lead

Sustain means to strengthen or support physically or mentally. 

If God is not sustaining what you are doing that means your flesh has to sustain it. Is our flesh strong or pure? Is our flesh forever? 

Quite simply put, our flesh is what fails. Our flesh does not go with us to heaven. We physically cannot sustain things on our own. The only one who is forever, the only one with all the power, and might to sustain things is God. 

If God doesn't give it to you, you have to take it. What does that mean for us though? If God does not give something to us, that means we have to take it. Does this way of thinking sound correct? Let's look at it this way, if I just take something off the shelf at the Dollar General what is that? Stealing. It is taking something that is not mine that was not meant for me at that time. 

If you take something before God gives it, there is no anointing for us to keep it. Things are sweeter when they're given to us. The world lies to us and says all you have to do is just reach out and take it, but that's not true at all. We wait on God.

Let us think about the beginning. Think about Eve. What did she do? She wanted to be wise, so she just reached out and took fruit from the tree of knowledge. Not only did she take it, but she took a bite of it! We know how that turned out. Just look at the world around us, disease, war, sadness, hunger. We know this wasn't what God intended.

But let's look at it this way: who had Eve literally been walking with? God! God has all power and all knowledge. If she wanted more wisdom, she needed to take more walks with God and spend time with the one who is wise. 

What is wrong with walking with God? This is a legitimate question. Many of us start strong walking with God but then we end up going our own way. Why is that?

 The only thing that we usually find wrong with walking with God is oftentimes it's a slow way. We want things right now. We live in a world where we get instant gratification. We pick up a phone and we can immediately get to music. We can immediately get to the internet and watch a show. We can immediately call someone, and they pick up. But that's not how life really works. That's not how God works. Yes, sometimes God is quick to answer us, but often it's a slow learning process. We too often rush God's timing and then have a huge fallout. God loves relationship with us. The walks with Him are important. And do you hear what I'm saying? I'm saying walks not runs. 

I have no doubts that God would have given Eve a little more wisdom each time she walked with Him, but like us, she wanted all the wisdom all at once. So, she took the fruit and bit it. The fastest way to mess up your future is to take shortcuts in your present. Think about it this way, an Olympic athlete doesn't make it to the Olympics by doing steroids. They make it to the Olympics by hard work, by dieting, by exercising, by getting up day in and day out and putting in the sweat equity it takes to get there. So many times, we see athletes who take the shortcuts like steroids getting completely kicked out of their sport of choice. Life is like that. Let us look at Eve again. She took a shortcut she bit the fruit and then she got kicked out of paradise.

God is so faithful. Stay in His process and in His timing, He will anoint us and give us what we need. If you rush in and just take what you think you can have, you are no better than a fool.

Ephesians 3:20-21: 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Do you believe what that verse says? One of the hardest parts of following Jesus is not attaching our expectations to the outcome along with our timeline. Remember our timing is not God's timing. He sees the full picture. So, what does it mean to not attach our expectations to the outcome? 

Do you remember the part in the Bible where it says God's ways aren't our ways? That is so true even in staying in God's presence and in His timing. One thing I've learned on my Christian Walk and that's walking with God, is very rarely are things going to happen the way I think they're going to happen. Take this lesson for example I thought I was writing a lesson and see where I went wrong; I thought I was. Anyway, I thought this lesson would simply be about patience and staying under God's umbrella that way our work is blessed and while that is still very true of this lesson, it has become much more than that. Just like the verses read, God does exceedingly and abundantly more even with this small lesson. This lesson encompasses more than just patience. It encompasses a life lesson in learning of walking with God in His timing and instead of rushing things, to ask God and spend more time with Him. Now, we’re learning about letting go of our expectations.

 Proverbs 16:9 says a man plans his way, but God orders our steps. That is not the exact word for word translation but that's exactly what it is. We make these grand plans we've set up on our timeline and we have these great expectations of what's going to happen, but God orders our steps and a lot of times it does not look like what we had in mind.

 If God isn't where you're heading, then you shouldn't want to be there. I don't want to be anywhere where God is not. If we could get that mindset that we don't want to be anywhere that God isn't, that we want to constantly walk with Him and ask Him for wisdom, that we understand even if things don't pan out the way we think they should, and that God's ordering the steps, this last thing we're going to talk about may not be so hard. 

A really hard thing for people and we can look back at Eve and see this again is we want to know everything. It's a big sacrifice for us to let go of needing to know and understand everything. I remember being a child and going on a family vacation with the ladies in my family. I didn't know how we were going to get there. This was before Siri told us where to go.

But I sat in the backseat of a van with my sister and cousin and was completely content not knowing where I was going because I knew my mom who was driving would safely get me there. I trusted her to know where I needed to be. I wasn't trying to drive, and I didn't have a care in the world because I knew whose care I was in. This is how we should feel with God. We can't possibly know everything, and we are passengers on this ride. He is the one driving and we should be at complete peace knowing He knows how to get where we're going, and we are in His care. 

This evening, I want to leave you with this, Eve reached out and took something instead of waiting on God and asking God for wisdom and how did that end up for her? It did not end well, but we could look at Noah and see God's timing, His provision, and His watch care. Noah's ark did not have a steering wheel. In fact, God closed the door because there wasn't even a doorknob and that door was huge! God is the one who directed that Ark where to go. 

Think about this, even if there had been a steering wheel, the whole world was covered in water. He would have had no landmarks to know where to go or know which way to steer. Noah just sat back and was on the ride and he trusted God because God knew where he was going and he knew God was taking care of him. Noah didn't question God when he built the ark. He trusted that the one driving knew exactly where they were going and what time they needed to be there. So, tonight are you trying to reach out and take things or are you waiting and asking God? Are you having crazy expectations and then being disappointed when things don't go the way you think they should even though God's the one ordering the steps? And are you trying to take a steering wheel that's not even there when God is the one that knows where you're going and how to get there?