Me ~ I was thinking about that movie "End of the Spear" and I thought to myself "why didn't those missionaries wait, ask God if they should go it alone or get additional help; after all, Nate's sister Rachel knew the language of the Waodani and she had one of the female members living with her that could have acted as a liaison. I just think it was a bad choice on their part and sadly they lost their lives. Interestingly, in the end, God did use their bad choice for good as the wives went into the jungle with the sister and female member and they made contact eventually transforming the tribe. What do you think?
John ~ Waiting to hear God's voice or see Him move in us is so imperative based on my experiences. I have so many examples when I moved alone and the results could have been catastrophic. When God moved on my behalf, events were blessed. This does not mean we should sit around and wait on God for everything. We have to eat and do things like go to work but when it comes to especially significant events, God has a plan. It clearly says in the Bible, "For I know the plans I have for you... plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11. God knows his best for you and he has designed each of us for a specific kind of life.
Once we learn to trust God, we can get through our day or any event in our lives, situations; and, know that he will show us and lead us. He opens doors and closes doors and He wants us to do things that we are naturally good at or things we did not know we were good at and discover. We may not know that until He sends us or gives us that experience. It is so easy to leap ahead, to be proactive out of impatience. We think God is along with us for the ride and He will make it all work out. However, God has His own timing. There are moments in the Bible that reveal that truth to us. We read about them and see and know that He is orchestrating everything. He can even bring things back, he can restore years that have been lost through bad choices.
Yet, I think it would be better to wait on God and His timing; instead of living acting out in fear. This is not the mind of God. He wants us to have the mind of Christ. Jesus was not late, nor early nor in doubt nor impatient. That is the kind of mind we should have. Jesus had things to do and family but he put hearing God's voice first. He would go away and spend time with God to hear his Father and then He would act. We need to go up to our mountain, spend time listening to and hearing the Father, to know and hear his voice. Look back on how many times things happened that were great and reflect on that. Every prayer that I prayed for like having a wife, family, home and all have been answered down to the detail. But, it took nearly twenty + years. I was doing what I wanted, I was not waiting on Him. I was going about my life and maybe that is why it took so long. We can read about people in the Bible who acted on their own and things almost caused catastrophe; like Jonah who almost sunk a ship because he didn't listen.
Another good example is Abraham, who during the drought instead of staying in the promised land, he went to Egypt, fear drove him. He lied to Pharaoh and almost lost his wife because of that. He acted on fear and not faith. We can hear many stories like that. We don't like sitting still, we like moving and doing. The slow boring times, may be for listening. We are supposed to be listening and waiting on God. Paul who spent many years after he was dramatically saved, sat around making tents. He wondered did God forget me. One day, God said time to Paul get up and go. And he did. But prior to that Paul had to wait. It may be that he needed time to become humble. He was already a proud man and meeting Jesus as he did might have made him arrogant ...Paul needed time to cool his heels. And, there are many other examples.
God gives us as many years and breaths as we need to accomplish His will and that is OK. We need to simply put our lives in the hands of Jesus even when things seem to be closing in. Psalm 23 tells me that even as I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I shall not be afraid. Sometimes, we have to walk through our own shadows of the valley of death to hear the voice of God in order to not be afraid. As fear drives us we cannot be the individuals that God wants us to be and He knows that we will be happy being that individual.
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