God Is Waiting for Us to Trust Him

 Psalm 70              Numbers 23-26                 James 4-5

The song writer reminds us how often we are in hurry for the Lord to do what we ask. We seek God’s intervention on our behalf with our enemies, those who seek our life. Often it is not that people want us to die but to lose the life we are blessed with. The seek our dishonor and to hurt, but it is often because they hurt. The celebrate when we are hurt.

We are reminded to look to the Lord for our help and for our praise. Then we can be glad there is one that receives us just as we are and make us want to magnify the Lord. It doesn’t make us in any less of a hurry to have God take away our pain. When our help comes from God it is always in the right time.

We pick up the story of Balak trying to get Balaam to curse Israel, even thought God has made it clear that he has not intention of cursing them and each time Balak demands a little less but fails to hear the message from God through Balaam. How often are we like Balak demanding God bless us even when we are unfaithful and disobedient? In the end Balaam not only does what God tells him to, blesses Israel, he curses Balak and his people.

Once again, we find the people of Israel impatient and disobedient to God rather quickly. The cost of there disobedience is high as well. They fail to learn from what God has done to their enemies and sin against God too. They then take a census and find that no one over 20 when they left Egypt except Caleb and Joshua are alive. God has fulfilled the first part of his promise on the cost of their disobedience.

In the last two chapters of James that the wars within the church are the result of lusting for things we are not meant to have. We either fail to ask for what we need or ask with the wrong motive, our pleasure rather than God’s. God offers grace to the humble, those that see themselves the way God sees hem. When we draw near to God he draws near to us and even our mourning is turned into joy.

We are to be at peace with one another. We are to leave the judgement up to the only one that has the right to be the judge, the Lord. We are to be patient with one another as we await the Lord’s return. We are to care for one another and put aside our differences for the Kingdom. When we endure the hard times with faith we will be blessed. We are to keep our word and let God worry about the others. Our brothers and sisters in the faith should hear the confession of our sins so that they can pray for us and we will be forgiven our sins. When one stays from the faith it is our work to turn them back in the direction of the Lord and that will save our own soul.

Today’s reading reminds us that we are not to try and direct the Lord to perform as we want him to but we are to do what he asks of us. It is more important to worry about our relationship with God than to spend our time trying to change others.