There is an ungodly belief that has been widely adopted by many churches which has been embraced by members of their congregation. Using verses like Jeremiah 29:11 and Philippians 1:6, there’s a consensus that God has a plan for your life and will bring to completion what the Lord began in your life. While this statement is true, the timeframe Christians are told when God’s will be fulfilled isn’t accurate. Ideally, when you cry out to the Lord for a specific request in prayer, receiving an answer tomorrow would be great. This has occurred in my life, but what do you do when tomorrow ends up being next year or later?
Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money. 14 Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air], James 4:13-14.
Human nature puts a desire for instant gratification within people. The Bible refers to this as the flesh, a sinful nature that is hostile toward God, Romans 8:5-8. When an only child or spoiled brat doesn’t get their way, tantrums often follow. While everyone matures at a different rate of time, some adults don’t grow out of this behavior. When the promise of tomorrow ends up becoming next week, next month or sometime next year, anxiousness may turn into fits of rage if things don’t go your way.
All the commandments which I command you this day you shall be watchful to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall [earnestly] remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to prove you, to know what was in your [mind and] heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you recognize and personally know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not become old upon you nor did your feet swell these forty years, Deuteronomy 8:1-4.
The book of Deuteronomy is a recapitulation of the Ten Commandments and much of the Mosaic Law. If human beings possess a sinful nature, they are also forgetful. Subsequently, God called Moses to write this book to remind the Israelites of God’s law. The selected passage above highlights Israel’s journey from Egypt to God’s promised land. This trip should have taken about a month by foot, but disobedience and grumbling turned arriving tomorrow into forty years later. When God puts the next phase of your life on hold, follow Solomon’s advice in Proverbs 3:5-6 to fight through the battle between time and following God’s will for your life.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 