Think Before You Move

Have you had a time in your life when you were waiting on the Lord and you decided that you could take matters in your own hands to speed things up a little bit?  After doing this you saw that, instead of making things better, you made things worse.  Now, you regret the fact that you didn't wait on the Lord.  I think that all of us, if we spoke truthfully, would have to admit that we have been guilty of the same thing.  Think about it...how many times have you opened up your mouth and said things that you regretted later?  Perhaps, you reacted to a circumstance before you really had enough time to think it through.  Maybe you got so angry at somebody that you actually verbalized your anger and hurt that other person.  Later on, you realized that the person really wasn't saying what you thought they were saying.  The Bible tells us, in the book of James, to be "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19). Good fruit is rarely produced in moments of anger.  

The fact of the matter is that we all need patience.  Patience is the fruit that is produced by the Spirit of God.  As we go through our trials and our mess ups it is something that we have great need of.  I don't know that there is any better story in the Bible that demonstrates the tragedy that impatience brings to a person's life than the story of Peter in the garden of Gethsemane the night that Jesus was taken.  You can read about it in John 18 and Luke 22:49-50.  Peter, through his impatience, was the first one to tell Jesus that he would never leave him; that others might, but that he would not leave him.  When the solders came into the garden, Jesus asked them, "Whom seek ye?"  When they said Jesus of Nazareth Jesus, by saying "I am he,"  found the solders and the temple police knocked to the ground by His words.  The power that was released hit them so hard and fast that they were on their backs before they knew what had happened.  While these soldiers were still flat on their backs, Peter decided to take matters into his own hands.  Maybe he thought that it was an opportunity to show courage, but what he did was wrong.  It is the perfect picture of someone being impatient and acting before thinking a thing through.  So, you need to think before you move.  He pulled out his sword and swings for the head of the high priest servant.  He missed the head, but he didn't miss entirely.  He cut off the servant's ear.  This last action of Peter put him in great jeopardy.  Had it not been for Jesus, Peter's actions would have landed him in jail or worse.