2 John 1:9 Don’t Run Ahead of God
“Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the father and the Son” (NIV).
This golfer must have been really in a hurry. He got to the course before the sun did, and this is not the first hole. I hope he had good eyesight because you don’t have to hit the ball too far or too far off-line to lose it in the fog.
This impatient golfer made me think of the times that I have gotten ahead of God. He gave me an assignment, and I grabbed it and ran. Unfortunately, I was like the golfer above, except that I got out before the Son. Guess which one had more problems. Right, I am the one who got so excited that I made big plans before I was ready for the small steps. There was some success, but it was limited, not nearly what God wanted. I didn’t heed the verse above or the advice given by Back to the Bible devotional of 1/20/2019, “As you seek God’s will for your life, seek His timetable as well. Don’t let your impatience carry you ahead of God. To do the right thing at the wrong time makes the right thing the wrong thing.” We need to keep in step with God’s time as well as His will. When we do get ahead of God, we have no good sight on the goal so we may well spend a lot of time wandering around, and may actually do something wrong. Just ask Abraham and Sarah.
God promised Abraham and Sarah a son, but it was taking a long time, so they took the matter in their own hands in order to hurry up the time schedule. They decided to have a son by Sarah’s hand maiden. Wrong! The result was Ishmael, and he was not the one promised. Once the promised one, Isaac, was born, the troubles multiplied as the two of them had claims on Abraham that are not resolved yet today.
Jentezen Franklin says in his 9/24/2021 Daily Devotion entitled, Don’t get ahead of God, “When God gives you a promise or a vision for your life, it’s like a seed. It needs time to take root before it can bear fruit. It’s like the birth of a baby. First the seed, then the pregnancy, then the development within the womb, and finally the day of delivery. And what do the parents do during this time? Prepare!” Good advice. God knows that His plans for us take time to grow inside our hearts and minds before they can grow in the world.