GOD's time and way is not MY time and way!!

John the Baptist is known as the forerunner of Christ, the second greatest prophet, and the last Old Testament prophet. John the Baptist’s greatest sermon was the announcement of the kingdom of God. This is discussed by Craig Van Gelder on pages 77 and 78 of The Essence of the Church. In his discussion Van Gelder makes a few interesting statements about John’s view of the importance of the coming messiah. Van Gelder states, “John viewed the coming Day of the Lord as the decisive moment of human history when God’s eschatological blessing on the redeemed would begin (the baptism of the Holy Spirit), and his judgment of evil would be complete.” Because john had such a wrath-based view of the coming of the Lord Van Gelder says that John often question if Jesus was the messiah. John Like many christens tried to hard to understand the time frame and working of God. I am not denoting the greatness of John, however I am saying that he was human, and as I have done and seen people do many times, John was trying to but his on conceptions and timetable on God’s plan. John believed as did many of the Jews that the Messiah would come and wipe out all of the enemies and immediately create a new kingdom. They could not see the great thing God was doing that we now call grace and salvation. Often times we fail to see God’s grace and salvation in the world we live in. When we go through a trial or test we often want to hurry through it, or we question why God has let something so bad happen to us. Sometimes I think we should just take a breath and take into our vision what God is really doing in our lives. Many of the Jews in john’s time missed out on the greatest gift of all because they were too busy trying to put their own ideas into God’s plan. I think in times when we don’t understand the way God is working situations out in our life we should take the advice Moses gave the Israelites in Exodus 14:13-14 to heart. “But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent’” Exodus 14:13-14(NASV). Just stand still, sometimes that’s all God requires is for us to watch him move. We may not understand the reason things are going the way they are, and we may not understand why he chose to work this way; this is when we just lift our hands in surrender, and say your will, and your time, not my will, and not my time for you alone are God.