In his sermon, Battling the Unbelief of Impatience (Isaiah 30:1-5, 15, 18), John Piper argues that impatience is unbelief, and that patience is not optional for a believer as it is a fruit of belief. He says that the way to battle the unbelief of impatience is (no surprise here) with the Word of God!
So you battle the unbelief of impatience by using the promises of God to persuade your heart that God's timing and God's guidance and God's sovereignty are going to take this frustrated, boxed in, unproductive situation and make something eternally valuable out of it. There will come a blessing, a strength, a vindication, a mounting up with wings like eagles.
Another section that jumped out at me..
They say to the seers, `See no more visions!`and to the prophets, `Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!` Isaiah 30:10-11
That is such a human response - we`re willing to listen to a lie instead of be convicted by the truth.
And yet iron sharpening iron is exactly how we grow to be more like Jesus. It`s painful, but necessary and so worth it!
If we`re not being convicted by the Word preached at our churches we need to ask ourselves if we are being honest in our self-evaulation (instead of thinking - X needs to listen to this sermon!) or if the Word is simply not being preached, in which case a change of churches is in order.
Tomorrow's passage: Isaiah 34-35, Micah 2-5
2 comments:
How true. The truth is hard to hear...even if it is what we need. It is easier to put our heads in the sand.
That same section jumped out at me as well. Sometimes what we want to hear and what we need to hear are not at all the same, but in the long run the truth is always better.
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