How Jesus lived and everything He did was done to model to us how to live a Christ-centered life. He lived a life of dependence on the Father, even His waiting on the Father’s timing. Sometimes it is hard to wait for God to move. We can be so eager to go and do God’s work that we can go without God. Moses, for instance, acted outside of God’s timing to help the Israelites in Egypt before he was ready, and had to spend forty years as a shepherd in the Desert of Midian before the Lord called him to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt (Act 7:23-30). There are things that God wants to do in us before He can use us. A.W. Tozer once said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.”
It is hard for some people to wait on God’s timing, but the worst thing that can happen to a man or woman of God is to be sent out in ministry before they are ready and prepared by God. Many have shipwrecked their faith because they tried to do God’s work before God’s work had been done in them. We are to take the beam out of our eye before we should attempt to take the sliver out of someone else's eye (Matthew 7:5). We have a picture of the making of a man or woman of God found in Isaiah 49:
1Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name. 2He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. 3He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor” (Isaiah 49:1-3).
Look closely at how God shapes the man or woman of God. First of all, there is a calling on his or her life. From the womb God has been at work, calling him or her by name. One of the most important things that have to be shaped by God is a man's word. A man's tongue is to become a sharp sword that is to be Spirit-led and empowered by God. There is no room for coarse language or deceitful lips. Old habits of speech are put behind us now that we walk with the Lord. The picture used is that of the making of an arrow. It had to be made pliable in the hands of the arrow maker and straightened on a rack. The process requires being polished which speaks of being rubbed the wrong way, and heat applied to our character before it can ever be used. Then the transformative work of God He does in our spirit is for us to be placed in the quiver and told to wait (A quiver is a leather bag used for carrying arrows on the back of the archer). The hardest part of being shaped and made effective is to wait for God to put you into His bow and use you at the time of His choosing. God wants to use all of His people, but more fruit comes from a life that is disciplined and brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. We are to walk in step with Him and not do our own thing, not going out under our power. Take the time to wait for the Lord:
Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see [it] (Psalm 37:34).
Keith Thomas