Impulsive Faith

"But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life" (Jude 20-21)

There was nothing impulsive about our Lord Jesus. He calmly unhurridly ministered to people never in a panic. He had a calm strength about Him we find so unnatural to our human nature. In an age where time is now counted in nanoseconds, and even that is becoming too slow, too long to wait, we rush everywhere, going nowhere. Do you find yourself rushing about with a sense of urgency and at the end of the day wonder why it all didn't get done? Where did the time go? This is a most often asked question and one generally that cannot be answered. We have developed the need for speed.

Most of us have developed our Christianity along those same lines the temperament that is so unlike our Saviour. Waiting upon God is a hard thing to do; it goes against our nature. All the while we read in our Bible's the admonition to wait upon the LORD, and we ignore this in favor of rushing to do something "good" for Him. Have you noticed something that happens when impulsively rush to do the work of our Savior? God put a check upon us and then we become self-conscience of our foolishness because we have tried to vindicate ourselves.  Impulsive children are thought of as cute, darling, but impulsiveness in an adult is always disastrous. Impulse has to be trained into intuition by discipline.

Peter a man of action, impulsive, opinionated, saw Jesus on the water walking and impulsively he stepped out of the boat and began to walk on the water. What his impulsiveness found so easy to do he had much trouble doing on dry land. We are too often impulsive in our desire to serve God. Discipleship is built upon Grace, it is supernatural, against our own naturalness. We strive to do it our way and often ends up unproductive. Peter learned obedience, learned to be less impulsive, and through the grace of God he walked on land less hurried and more productive. In fact, the church was built upon his steadfastness and determination to disciple peoples and in a calm unhurried manner.

It is pride that often gets in the way causing us to lean less on the Grace of God and to depend on ourselves. It is true in the natural we can get much done but in the strain of life it is not sufficient to get us through the drudgery to live the life of a disciple. To live the ordinary, unobserved life, an ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus it takes the Grace of God to wait for the mercy of God. This waiting is a time to build yourself up in the faith, read your Bible, pray, not just sometime, but all the time. Allow God to direct your steps, remember He will not lose any that are to come to Him. What He desires of us is a communion with Him. It is not the exceptional thing we do for God; it is in the ordinary things to be holy and this is not learned in five minutes.

Remember the will of God is not for us to be super heroes, exceptional in discipleship. He wants us to commune with Him and we do this moment by moment each day, through all the things that we need to do and want to do we learn to spend time with Him. It is through this unhurried time that God speaks to us and gives us direction so that we can calmly, not impulsively, minister where He wants us to minister.

Daily Prayer:

Father thank you for your patience with me. Forgive my impulsiveness that has taken precedence over your will. Thank you for wanting to spend time with me, I want to spend time with you. Today, LORD, I begin to allow you to disciple me, through your Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Help me to be calm and to wait upon you.                                  Amen