EXODUS 32:1-2 – When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”

THEME OF THE DAY. THE SIN OF IMPATIENCE. Sometimes it is easy to give ourselves a pass on certain sins. Here are three we may tolerate without seeing them as affronts against God; being irritated with people revealing we are not treating them in love; complaining about circumstances revealing we really don’t like God’s sovereignty much; and spiritual laziness revealing our lack of discipline in the Word and prayer. There are more “tolerable” sins and one is found in today’s scripture – impatience.

Here is the setting. Moses went to the mountain to meet God. He was going to receive the tablets of stone containing the commandments (Exodus 24:12-13). And in all things in life, timing is up to God. Moses didn’t have an appointment with God that was determined by him. No, God called him to Himself and it was His timing when the encounter was over. This did not set well with God’s people waiting on Moses. The scripture reads, When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. What may appear as a little thing – impatience – is anything but. God’s response to His people’s impatience was swift and severe. Impatience is no small thing in the eyes of our God. Let’s consider two things that the sin of impatience reveals about us.

First, impatience reveals we suffer from spiritual amnesia. Impatient people have forgotten we live in the constant presence of the God who is working all things out in our lives for His glory and our good (Romans 8:28). Parent, that difficult child trying our patience is God’s gift to us to develop your patience. Or maybe we are in a challenging marriage with an insensitive spouse who simply won’t change, and our impatience is showing because of no change. Stop, pause, and remember the God who is always present and always at work. He is using this to develop the character of His Son in us who is super patient and will produce it in us too, if we respond correctly and spiritually. So, Christians who are impatient are God’s children who have forgotten their God; a forgetfulness that fails to recognize His presence and work in their lives, not sometimes, but all the time.

Next, impatience reveals we are sinfully selfish people in need of God’s constant grace. And this empowering grace is to prevent harmful outbursts from our impatience through words and actions to those on the receiving end. Impatience really boils down to people and circumstances not conforming to our desires and schedules. Is that not an apt description of selfishness – the desire for our wills to be done? And that is what makes impatience such a heinous sin against God. It sends the message to heaven, “Not Your will be done, but mine” as we allow impatience to butt heads with God’s sovereignty.

The sin of impatience is not a “small” sin to be tolerated or ignored. It is to be fought against in the power of God’s Word and Spirit to be replaced by the glorious virtue of godly patience.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me when I allow the sin of impatience to go undealt with in my life.”

QUOTE: “There are no little sins against our holy God and that includes impatience”