It's Saturday morning - cloudy - snow is forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning and it's March. We "spring forward" tonight, what's with the snow? But this morning I have my Quiet Time Playlist on my I-POD and I've had some great time to read and reflect, to write in my personal journal and to listen to the heart of God and ask him to speak to me.
Some of you who may read my blog or are part of the community who hear me teach know that I am struggling between journaling online and journaling with pen and paper. I love the world where what God is speaking to me and what I am learning from his Word can be shared at the same time as I keep it for myself on my blog - but there are moments where I need to pour out deeper, more private and personal issues and insights that would not be appropriate for this public forum. So, I've gone back to a paper and pen journal for those thoughts - kept between God and I - but am still committed to sharing what God is teaching me from the Word here.
So this morning I was journaling about an area in my life where there is so much potential for healing, wholeness and restoration. There is just one problem. IT'S NOT HAPPENING FAST ENOUGH. Do you have an area of your life like that? It could be a job hunt, a relationship where you long for healing. It could be the natural "next step" in your life - marriage, parenthood, a home you actually own, the obvious career move. You want it, you can taste it, God hasn't denied it...it seems in line with his will...it's just taking a long time.
This morning I read Deuteronomy 7. Moses communicated all this to the nation of Israel some almost 40 years earlier (see Exodux 23),the first time they were perched to enter the promised land, but they didn't get it - so now Moses pushes "re-send" to ensure that they hear God's words before they enter the land that God has promised them.
Deuteronomy 7:21-22 says,
Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. But the LORD you God will deliver them over to you...
What struck me this morning were the word, little by little. How often does God work in your life litte by little? How often do you (and I) want him to work fast and faster? It could be a result of a culture where we have so much instantly...we hate to wait while our computer re-boots, and we bemoan when it isn't fast enough. We pop something in the microwave and wait impatiently as the seconds tick by. We wish the person in front of us would move through the intersection faster so we can make the light. Little by little doesn't sound very fun!!
But God had his reasons for the little by little movement over immediate movement. The nation of Israel simply wasn't large enough to be able to inhabit the land and it would have been over-run with wild animals and so God gave them the land little by little.
As I said, there is an area in my life where God is trust working, but it is little by little. Undoubtedly God has his GOOD reasons. Something is being worked out me and in others. Something is being prepared and something else is being restrained so that all is ready (no wild animals!?). How about you? In what area of your life are you watchinging God work little by little?
Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD...
I have several areas.
The biggie: My marriage.
also the future of my ministry and my book I want to write.
Posted by: Heidi | March 12, 2009 at 05:11 PM