What Can Possibly Be Your Excuse For Waiting?

It seems like everywhere I look, Christians are waiting as they place “Kingdom-business” on hold. Some are waiting for some aspect of their character to be fixed, for their marriage to be just right; others wait to graduate from seminary, for a public ordination, for their finances to be straight, etc. In Luke 9:59-62 two men were directly called by Jesus for the service of God’s Kingdom. One just lost his father and the other wanted to say good-by to his family. Both men accepted the call, but both men requested what seemed to be a justifiable reason for delay. How did Jesus respond to their request?

He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him “Let dead people bury their own dead. You go and tell others about God’s kingdom.” Still another man said, “I will follow you, Lord. But first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” Jesus replied, “Suppose you start to plow and then look back. If you do, you are not fit for service in God’s kingdom.”  

There is indeed a place for waiting on the Lord as it relates to prayer especially; however there are other things that can’t wait not even for a minute. How long does the Bible say to wait before we start pursuing loving God above all things? How long before we start loving our neighbor? How long before we cloth the naked, feed the hungry, visit the sick, help the poor, reach out to the fatherless, the widows and remember the ones in prison? How long before we really start loving ourselves? How long before we give, not only our money, but of our time, of our resources and of our talents? How long before we forgive the ones that has trespassed against us? How long before we repent, before we say I am sorry and before we admit that we were wrong? How long before we confess our sins to one another? How long before we let go of useless arguments and useless relationships? How long before we start reading the Bible? How long before we start praying? How long before we start fasting? How long before we tell others about Jesus? How long before we stop the gossip and negativism? How long?

There is no Biblical justification for waiting on either one of these things. The more we wait, the deeper we will fall into our current spiritual mediocrity. That is our problem now; while we wait the devil is at work; he is surely not waiting! If two thousand years ago Jesus did not accept what seemed to be two reasonable excuses, what can possibly be your excuse today?