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A Miraculous Delay

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Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Are you the kind of person that likes immediate results? I am. I’ll admit I’m not a very patient person by nature. Waiting frustrates me.

Just ask my kids.

So when God whispers instruction into my life and I choose to trust Him through faithful obedience, I tend to expect that I’ll soon see Him fulfill a promise. After all, Scripture teaches that God blesses the faithful.

But I’ve discovered that God’s timetable rarely matches my own. Sometimes blessings loom just beyond the horizon. Time passes and promises remain unfulfilled. And I get weary from waiting.

Ever been there?

Beloved, just as God calls us to trust His plans, He also insists we trust His timing. So how do you and I keep from becoming weary while we wait? Perhaps we need to allow God to change our perspective.

I want to challenge you to consider something. What if the waiting is actually part of the blessing? What if that time between the promise and its fulfillment actually provides an opportunity to experience God in a way you’d miss without it?

Caleb knows what I’m talking about.

You may be familiar with Caleb’s story. He was one of only two men that God delivered from slavery in Egypt through Moses that made it into the Promised Land. The rest of them died in the desert. Let’s visit Caleb and the Israelites to watch him receive his blessing.

When we left the Israelites last week they were ready to choose a new leader and head back to Egypt. As a result, Moses and Aaron fell facedown, and Joshua joined Caleb to plead with the people to trust the Lord.

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” Numbers 14:6-9

You may be surprised to hear how the Israelites applauded their faith.

But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. (verse 10)

Dear one, when you choose to step out in faith, you may discover that even God’s own people sometimes turn on you in fear. Unfortunately, you can’t follow Jesus and follow the crowd. But you can rest in this eternal promise: when you stand for Jesus, He will fight for you.

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. (verse 10)

God showed up and voiced His anger over their unbelief, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?” (Numbers 14:11)

I wonder if He’s asking the same questions today.

Beloved, how long will our generation persist in its unbelief? How long will we, the children of God, allow what’s popular to dictate our actions instead of the Word of the Lord? Like the Israelites, our disregard for His Word will bring consequences.

Moses interceded on behalf of the people and God agreed not to destroy them, but their disobedience was not without consequence.

The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. . . But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” Numbers 14:20-24

Even when God offers forgiveness, disobedience will always reap consequences. But just as certainly, faith will always reap blessings. They just may not come in the timing you would choose. Just ask Caleb. He waited 45 years to see the fulfillment of his promise.

How can that be? Wouldn’t God want to bless His faithful servant? Why make him wait? Consider Caleb’s words when he finally received his blessing.

“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. Joshua 14:10-13

Sure, God could have made a way for Caleb to enter the land at forty, but then Caleb would’ve missed experiencing God’s miraculous presence for the forty-five years he waited.

God faithfully kept His word to give the land to Caleb, but He also gave him an added blessing that had not been promised. He kept age from ravaging his body. Caleb watched the flesh of the rest of the men in the camp wear out while he remained strong. He escaped the aching decay of age and stood at eighty-five as strong and vigorous as he had been at forty. And how much sweeter the taking of that land must have been for him after 45 years!

God always keeps His word, beloved. Always.

If you have been faithful to trust God through your obedience but His promise remains far off, perhaps another blessing waits for you in the interim. Ask God to give you a heart like Caleb, who believed even when he didn’t see. You may discover your wait includes an experience of God that exceeds what you could ask or imagine.

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:13-14

When Gifts Become Gods

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They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Romans 1:25

We like to think of idolatry as an Old Testament sin. After all, most of us don’t set up altars and statues of foreign gods in our living rooms. We proudly display crosses and plaques engraved with Scripture. We place Bibles on our coffee tables. By all appearances, we worship and serve the Lord!

But idolatry involves much more than graven images. It occurs every time something other than God rises to claim the worship and obedience of our hearts—like my need to be right that I shared with you last week. Inadvertently serving that need interfered with my ability to fully serve the Lord.

That’s idolatry, dear one, plain and simple.

Can you think of anything you have exalted to God’s rightful place in your heart? Something you “serve” that keeps you from living out God’s plan?

Our idols can be any number of things, ranging from addictions to relationships. Even comfort can be an idol.  We often refuse to follow Jesus into anything that makes us uncomfortable; we serve the promise of comfort instead of obeying God.

Let’s face it. Most of the time, the things we serve that pull us away from God aren’t things we’d obviously recognize as sin.  Sometimes they’re good things—even wonderful things—things God Himself gave us.

Beloved, sometimes we exalt and serve the gifts that come from His hand.

The Israelites did that when they made their famous golden calf. Do you know where they got the gold they used? Exodus 12:35-36 tells us:

The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

I find the thought a little unsettling.

Israel used God’s own gift to them—a blessing He provided for them through His deliverance—to construct a god to replace Him.

What’s more, God had other intentions for that gold. It was supposed to build the articles for the tabernacle that would house His presence.

These people had witnessed God’s power through the plagues in Egypt and had seen Him descend in pillars of cloud and fire. They crossed the Red Sea on dry land and then watched the waters God had parted for them collapse and consume their enemies.

But they hadn’t seen any sign of Him for a couple of weeks while Moses met with Him on the mountain, so they thought it would be a good idea to abandon their Deliverer and come up with some new gods.

Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”  So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.  He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Exodus 32:2-4

Jeremiah 2:11 comes to mind.

Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.

Indeed. How like humanity to exchange the Glory God meant for them—His power, presence and protection—for something man himself designed. Something that holds no power at all, whose only value comes from the fact that originally, it came from God.

And why did they do it? Apparently God took too long.

I can’t help but think of Abraham and Sarah. They found themselves trapped by this kind of idolatry when God’s blessed gift of a son became the idol they served.

God gave them the beautiful gift through a prophecy. He told them He would give them a son through whom He would bless the world. And they received God’s gift with joyful faith!

But then God took too long. So instead of waiting on God and trusting His timing to fulfill His promise, they began to serve the gift itself.

Sarah took matters into her own hands, giving her maidservant to her husband in marriage so they could conceive the son. And they did. But from the moment of that conception, misery followed. They had wandered from God’s purpose to bring about their own. Sadly, they discovered their idolatry also brought painful consequences.

Dear one, you and I often take God’s gifts to us and fashion them into gods. 

We naturally tend to worship and serve the gifts God gives us rather than worshiping the Giver through the gift.

I almost did that very thing with this ministry. I hadn’t intended to, but once God gave me His vision for Kelley Latta Ministries, I felt responsible to somehow make it happen. I put pressure on myself to establish it and grow it. God simply wanted me to rest in His plan and follow Him to its completion. Instead, I almost ran ahead of His timing.

I found myself tempted to serve the gift at the expense of the Giver.

Has God given you a gift, beloved, that you have unwittingly served as a god? Perhaps a relationship, a job, a child—even a talent that was meant to serve Him?

Serving our idols will not only weary us; it will also diminish the blessing God meant to provide through the gift. Just look at Abraham. The child born through his union with the maidservant became the enemy of the child of promise.

Dear one, serving anything other than God sets us on a destructive path. Let’s ask the Lord to show us every idol demanding the worship and service of our hearts. Rejecting them as gods and exalting God’s purpose alone allows us to fully receive the blessings God intended through them. They become gifts without bondage or consequences, gifts that remain good and perfect.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

Are you ready to receive?

Blessings in the Wait

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Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Are you the kind of person that likes immediate results? I am. I’ll admit I’m not a very patient person by nature. Waiting frustrates me. Just ask my kids.

So when God whispers instruction into my life and I choose to trust Him through faithful obedience, I tend to expect that I will soon see Him fulfill a promise. After all, Scripture teaches that God blesses the faithful.

But I’ve discovered that God’s timetable rarely matches my own. Sometimes blessings loom just beyond the horizon. Time passes and promises remain unfulfilled. And I get weary from waiting. Ever been there?

Dear one, as God calls us to trust His plan, He also insists we trust His timing. So how do you and I keep from becoming weary in the wait? Perhaps we need to allow God to change our perspective.

Recently God led me to consider this thought: what if the waiting is actually part of the blessing? What if that time between the promise and its fulfillment actually provides an opportunity to experience God in a way that I would miss without it?

Caleb knows what I’m talking about. You may remember Caleb from last week’s lesson. He was one of only two men that God delivered from slavery in Egypt through Moses that made it into the Promised Land. The rest of them died in the desert. Let’s rejoin Caleb and the Israelites to watch him receive his blessing.

When we left the Israelites last week they were ready to choose a new leader and head back to Egypt. As a result, Moses and Aaron fell facedown and Joshua joined Caleb to plead with the people to trust the Lord.

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.  If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” Numbers 14:6-9

You may be surprised to hear how the Israelites applauded their faith.

But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. (verse 10)

You may discover that when you choose to step out in faith, even God’s own people sometimes turn on you in fear. Unfortunately, you can’t follow Jesus and follow the crowd. But you can rest in this eternal promise:  when you stand for Jesus, He will fight for you.

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. (verse 10)

God showed up and voiced His anger over their unbelief,

“How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?” (Numbers 14:11)

Dear one, how long will our generation persist in its unbelief? How long will we, the children of God, allow what’s popular to dictate our actions instead of the Word of the Lord? Like the Israelites, our disregard for His Word will bring repercussions.

Moses interceded on behalf of the people and God agreed not to destroy them, but their disobedience was not without consequence.

The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked.  Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—  not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. . . But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” Numbers 14:20-24

Friend, even when God offers forgiveness, disobedience will always reap consequences. But just as certainly, faith will always reap blessings. They just may not come in the timing you would choose.  Just ask Caleb. He waited 45 years to see the fulfillment of his promise.

How can that be? Wouldn’t God want to bless His faithful servant? Why make him wait? Consider Caleb’s words when he finally received his blessing.

“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old!  I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. Joshua 14:10-13

Sure, God could have made a way for Caleb to enter the land at forty, but then Caleb would’ve missed experiencing God’s miraculous presence for the forty-five years he waited.

God faithfully kept His word to give the land to Caleb, but He also gave him an added blessing that had not been promised. He kept age from ravaging his body. Caleb watched the flesh of the rest of the men in the camp wear out while he remained strong. He escaped the aching decay of age and stood at eighty-five as strong and vigorous as he had been at forty. And how much sweeter the taking of that land must have been for him after 45 years!

God always keeps His word, beloved. Always.

If you have been faithful to trust God through your obedience but His promise remains far off, perhaps another blessing waits for you in the interim. Ask God to give you a heart like Caleb, who believed even when he didn’t see.  You may discover your wait includes an experience of God that exceeds what you could ask or imagine.

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.  Psalm 27:13-14