Its not that all those things are bad; they’re actually pretty good ideas. In fact, we learn that such planning is a good thing and that the Bible does teach Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he (Proverbs 29:18). Churches need to have a plan and a vision for the future. Using our previous example of the new church that wants to have all those ministries, those are perfectly fine areas for their ministry to grow. By having a vision, it allows the church to plan, to recruit and train the right church member to lead each of them, and to assure that it truly is the direction the Lord wants the church to grow. Trying to do it right after the founding of the church would not be wise because spiritually, financially, and probably even member-wise, the church is not ready for that kind of expansion with only being a church for three months. As a congregation, they need to wait upon the Lord and he will provide the resources needed to expand HIS ministries.
The same is true for individual Christians; once we have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we have an intense desire to get out and do something for God. We want to not only share our faith with others, but we are ready to take on the world. We are ready to do great and mighty things for the Lord out of our gratitude and love for Him and we don’t want to wait but we want to do it NOW. Even the apostle Peter warns young Christians in the faith, Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious (I Peter 2:1-3). Before we can run in our faith, we must learn to walk; before we can walk in the faith, we must learn to crawl. Too many Christians, for whatever reason, will try to go immediately into running mode rather than to allow themselves to be taught by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Instead of waiting on God’s time, they want to simply do – and because of them being young Christians, they simply do not have the spiritual tools to use. By not waiting on the Lord, they are setting themselves up for failure.
It is not easy to wait upon the Lord when we feel the strong desire to serve Him. In my own walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, I have often jumped into things without realizing how unprepared I actually was. Just as in many of my earlier trips, I was too busy flying down the Interstate at 75 miles an hour and not enjoying the trip to my destination. As I have gotten older and more serious about my faith in Jesus and more serious about my relationship with Him, I have learned that it is not about who is the fastest or who builds up the largest ministry, it’s about the journey to the finish line. Its about taking the time to do what God has called me in a manner that glorifies Him, that is thorough and based in righteousness where when it is my time to cross that finish line that I can say without any doubts I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing (II Timothy 4:8-9).
