Written by Mari Venezia.

It has been nine years and I’m getting tired of waiting. We moved to Alabama with the expectation of running a successful company. We have done everything the way we thought it should be done. We have prayed and sought the Lord, and yet it doesn’t seem to be happening the way I want it, and surely not as fast as I want it to happen.

My husband keeps reminding me that my only responsibility is to “trust and obey” the Lord through his leadership. I know that he is my leader, but he really doesn’t understand. I have so many great ideas and I know how to get along with people. Oh, and I can say it much more smoothly than he can. Why in the world does he have to make all the decisions for our family? I know that God commands me to be submissive to him but I know some things too!

Sounds a little bit like Aaron, Moses’ brother, doesn’t it? Moses thought highly of his brother. After all, Aaron was a better speaker, and God used Aaron to help Moses. But God in all His wisdom knew why He chose Moses to lead and his speaking and people skills had nothing to do with it. Maybe God wanted all of us as inadequate speakers to know that when God is behind us, He enables us.

Picture this! Moses is up on the mountain visiting with God. The God of the Universe is giving Moses very specific instructions on how to do things. It is time consuming, and he is in God’s very presence. Aaron is in charge back at camp, and all those able bodied men of God that Jethro helped Moses choose to help lead are there too. Hopefully, all is well down the mountain. Little did Moses know that the Israelites are complaining again.

What would have to happen to cause me to lose heart?
How many trials would I endure before giving up on God?

And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him (Exodus 32:1). There is a mutiny going on back at camp while Moses is doing what God has asked him to do. Aaron, on the other hand, is going along with the people and losing heart.

What would have to happen to cause you to lose heart? How many trials would you endure before giving up on God?  Remember, these Israelites are the same people who saw God’s hand in all the plagues in Egypt. These are the people who saw the Red Sea part. They walked on dry ground and saw their Egyptian enemies drown in the sea. They saw God feed them daily with fresh, delicious manna. Yet these same people are now tired of waiting for Moses and wonder if he’ll even come back. Their “fearless” leader, Aaron, is falling into the same rut of impatience.

What am I impatient about? What do I think God has forgotten? Aaron believed the people instead of what he was trained to believe. He was trained to trust Moses who followed God’s commands. He was very safe under the protection of his leader, Moses, yet he got his eyes off the master and onto his circumstances.

I have been guilty of the same. I get impatient and don’t think things are happening fast enough. I get tired of waiting on God to do what I’ve been asking. I get tired of waiting for God to save someone or to bring about prosperity in our business. I start working things out in my own strength. Instead of waiting on the Holy Spirit to convict the ones with whom I’ve shared Christ, I start badgering and pressuring them. When I think it’s time for the Lord to answer a prayer on my prayer list and it hasn’t been answered, I decide to remove it completely. Forget it! When I think our business should be prospering after all this time and we’re still just making ends meet, I start thinking of another way to earn a living.

All of these struggles come because I am not willing to wait on the Lord.

It has been nine years, and as tired of waiting as I seem to be, I can’t imagine what God is thinking. What was He thinking when he knew Aaron and the Israelites were choosing another way that didn’t include God Almighty? The One who guided them through the desert, the One who fed them with their daily bread, and the One who called them “chosen people” had already taken care of everything. Likewise, He has it taken care of for me. Nine years seems like a long time, but it is nothing when it is God’s time.  So today I will continue to “wait on the Lord” and “be of good courage” and know that He will strengthen my heart (Psalm 27:14).

Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Psalm 27:14

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This article was published in the Summer 2010 edition of The Beautiful Spirit magazine. Mari Venezia and her husband Frank have two children and several grandchildren.

To contact Mari, please email comments@thebeautifulspirit.org or message us on Facebook.