Everywhere I Go: Learning to See JesusSample

PATIENCE The best illustration of impatience in all of Scripture has to be recorded in Exodus. Two brothers were engaged in the same activity at virtually the same timeﾗbut with vastly different results. Moses was on Mount Sinai in the presence of God, holding the tablets as God sculpted on them His rules for living. Aaron was at the foot of the mountain, sculpting an idol for himself and the children of Israel. Moses had been on the mountain for forty days, and the natives, as they say, were restless. They asked Aaron to make a god they could worship, and he complied. They could not wait for Moses to come down from the mountain. They were impatient, and Aaron gave them what they asked for. What was the difference in these two endeavors? Moses was responding to the divine decree of God. Aaron was responding to the pleas of the people. Moses gave the people what God thought they needed. Aaron gave the people what they thought they needed. The words that would be life and peace and promise to them were being carved by the very hand of God, but the Israelites could not wait to read them. You and I must learn to be patient. Patience does not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It means waiting on God, but doing His will in the meantime. It means using our spiritual gifts, working to bring in the harvest, and speaking out in spite of suffering and persecution.