Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. And Samuel said, “What have you done?…You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.” 1 Samuel 13:8-11a, 13
The title of the blog is fairly erroneous since God is always with us, but suffice it to say, not infrequently the Lord sets us in a position of expectancy so that He might determine our performance. This is what He did with Saul and when panic set in, Saul blew it; he grabbed the reins and took matters into his own hands. From the story we can glean that our loving Father allows us to wallow in expectation occasionally that we might advance and mature spiritually.
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4
God is not toying with us; He’s training us! God knows it’s our tendency to panic, which is precisely the reason why He has provided one example after another in the Bible so that we might learn from somebody else’s experience. Experience is the best teacher, but nowhere is it written that bad experiences must be personal experiences. Our Father loves us, therefore He warns us.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “By perseverance the snail reached the ark,” And God might add, “And please take notice that the ark did not sail without them.”
If I were in Noah’s sandals (recognizing my tendency to panic), I suspect I would have been the one standing in the doorway staring at my watch muttering, “Where are those stupid gastropods!” However I am slowly learning that God’s timing is absolutely perfect.
But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand… Psalm 31:14-15a
Patience has a perfect work towards an abundant existence. The question that remains is do we take God at His word; do we believe the Creator of the universe when He speaks to us? Can we hold out long enough for God to reveal to us that which He has promised? I am certainly no hero, but I appreciate the sentiment from this Ralph Waldo Emerson quote:
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.
If we have prayed for God to restore, reform, and reshape us, then it is implied that we have deemed it reasonable to stand in one spot long enough (spiritually speaking) for Him to complete the task. Saul’s selfish error was that he desired all of God’s blessings, but he was not submitted to the sanctification process. Am I? Are you?
It was not God’s plan to set Saul up for failure; that notion is inane. Therefore it stands to reason that it is not His plan for us to fail either. The reality is that God wants us to shine because in so doing it is a wonderful reflection on Him and His work in us. In like fashion, Ford does not put a new vehicle on the test track to have it fail, but to shine for the company, and yes, to work out the kinks.
The car has no choice in the matter. We do. We should choose wisely.
- What does the passage say about God?
- About us?
- Accordingly, how should we pray?
He Dwells -- The B'log in My Eye 
