As Soon As I Can See What God Is Doing

I don’t know about you, but I can’t count the times I have said I wish I knew what God was doing. This is our greatest challenge as Christians to trust God with our future when we don’t see how things fit together. We have to trust and wait, and that is hard to do.

I am encouraged to see that David felt the same. As a fugitive from King Saul, I should add mad King Saul. He was trying to kill David even though David had not done anything worthy of death. In fact, David had been a model soldier and son-in-law. But Saul was jealous of who David was, and he wanted that for himself but wasn’t willing to pay the price for it. David was on the run, and he was worried that his family would be targets of Saul’s death squads. So he went to the King of Moab and asked if his mother and father could say there, “until I learn what God will do for me?” (1 Sam 22:3). There is that confusion and wonder of what God is up to.

How we wish God would tell us—show us—anything, just let me know God. David, however, shows that he is confident that God will show him in time. Notice the phrase “until I learn what God will do for me.” He didn’t know, but he believed that he would learn, and even then, God was at work teaching him.

Though David was uncertain about “what God will do for me.” He was confident that God would take care of him and that His purpose would be fulfilled, but he did not know how. In this Psalm written during this time, he states: “I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me” (Ps 57:2). David says God has a purpose for my life, and I will one day see it.

David’s outlook will help all of us. To believe that God is working out his purpose in our lives when it doesn’t feel like it is to put our faith to work.

The Benefits of Waiting

The following is a classic Old Testament story about the benefits of waiting for God to bless and promote you. This posture is antithetical to today’s grab all you can while you can attitude. However, seeing a man like Mordecai and how God promoted him is refreshing.

Mordecai, found in Esther’s intriguing story, is a man worth imitating. Mordecai had an enemy who hated him. This rival was Haman, a powerful official in King Xerxes’ kingdom who hated Jews.  Through deception, he devised a plan to kill Mordecai and the entire Jewish population. He was so sure of his plans that he prepared 75 feet gallows to hang Mordecai on. However, there was one detail that Haman overlooked—Mordecai’s God.

Just as Haman was gaining the power to eliminate Mordecai, God intervened in his sovereign way. The King could not sleep, so he called for the record books to be read to him. He discovered that Mordecai had saved the King’s life by uncovering a plot to kill him. The King demanded that something be done to honor Mordecai. The King asked, “Who is in the court?” Haman had just entered. The King’s attendants answered, “Haman is standing in the court.” “Bring him in,” the King ordered. When Haman entered, the King asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” (Esther 6:4-6)

Haman is so arrogant that he believes that the King is preparing to honor him, so he gives him a great list: “For the man, the King delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the King has worn and a horse the King has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the King’s most noble princes. Let them robe the man the King delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!’” (Esther 6:7-9). Then the King announced I want you to honor Mordecai.

Haman was humiliated as he led Mordecai through the streets and proclaimed, “This is Mordecai, the man the King desires to honor.” This would have been a heady moment for most, but not for Mordecai because he was committed to living for God. The next verse is an eloquent testimony to the life of Mordecai: “Afterward Mordecai returned to the king’s gate.  But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief.” (Esther 6:12).  Mordecai had long trusted his life to God.  If God wanted to promote him, then the promotion would find him. He would carry out his duties in faithfulness to God. I pray that God will give us more men and women like Mordecai who are interested in serving God, not self-promotion.

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