“Every sin we commit represents a failure to wait on God.”- Dr. Wayne Stiles
As Wayne Stiles continues Chapter 4 of Waiting on God, he emphasizes that “waiting on God for satisfaction extends . . . to our entire walk with God.” Our failure to wait on God for satisfaction often comes because the new life God transitions us toward seems inferior to our previous life.
Furthermore, in the moments we struggle with discouragement, selective memory betrays us into considering only half the truth. Consequently, as Dr. Stiles describes, we focus on material loss rather than spiritual benefit:
“Our minds focus on all the sensory losses and none of the spiritual benefits. It’s never the lack of spiritual connection with God we remember from the past. It’s the pleasure of sin’s shortcuts to immediate gratification.”
As a result of God removing something abundant from our lives, a number of emotional triggers kick in. Dr. Stiles lists six:
- anger with God
- temptation to sin
- coveting someone else’s life
- making happiness the top priority
- taking what looks good without giving thought to the consequences
- believing one should get more for one’s hard work
Therefore, waiting on God seems all academic and impractical. In the court of human opinion, God seems to play unfairly. Hence, our definition of faithfulness assumes priority, as Wayne explains:
“He [God] fails to keep his promises when we define his faithfulness in terms of our ideal life. . . . We set up the standards by which God should rule the world, and then we crucify him when he lets us down.
When God fails to open the door for us to enter our ideal life, its tempting just to chase it ourselves. We’ll issue God an ultimatum, and if he misses the deadline we’ll assume he approves.”
Today’s question: How has failure to wait on God expressed itself in your thoughts and actions? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The proper time”
