Ours is the age of instant. We consume instant potatoes, instant coffee, and instant oatmeal.
Ours is the society of the drive thru. We can remain in the quiet comforts of our vehicle and still pick up our laundry, carry out our banking, grab our lunch, and buy our over-priced latte.
Ours is the environment of speed. We wield on-demand cable TV, 4G wireless service, and high performance internet access.
Hurry has become our most revered deity; waiting has become the cardinal sin–an abomination of the worst order. The devil is no longer a spirit entity who attacks our faith, but anything that causes us delay.
To be left in the waiting room is anathema.
These shifts in our cultural thinking and practice have impacted, not only our lives, but our views of the Almighty (Psalm 50:21). He too must hustle and rush at the same frantic pace of humanity. Since he transcends time, he ought to match his blessings to the gait of our hasty requests.
When a loved one is ill, God ought to bring instantaneous recovery. When we’ve lost our job, he ought to step into the time-continuum and open an immediate door of providential opportunity. When we wrestle with habitual defeating sin, God ought to bring about prompt delivery.
In essence, God ought to be instant, Someone we can pick up at the drive through, and faster than a speeding bullet.
The problem is–God isn’t in a hurry (2 Peter 3:8).
Ever. You could say he cooks like Grandma used to–without the luxury of a modern microwave.
Jehovah often allows his children to simmer in the crockpot of patient endurance (James 1:3-4). His divine recipe for our spiritual maturity includes nothing more dramatic than letting us wait (2 Corinthians 6:4; Colossians 1:11) for his perfect will to unfold.
You see, he knows real faith is refined in the oven of days, months, and years, not in the popcorn setting of a digital oven.
Think about it.
When Abram and Sarai were sure it was far too late to start a family, God allowed the couple to sauté yet another 25 years before blessing them with Isaac.
When Isaac and Rebekah wanted children to grace their home, God let husband and wife swelter the heat of perseverance for 20 years before answering their prayer.
When Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, God allowed 22 years elapse before the siblings were finally brought together and reconciled.
When Moses was ready to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt, God left the future deliverer in the oven of Midian for 40 years.
These Bible heroes grace the sacred pages of Hebrews eleven because they waited on God (Psalm 27:14; 37:9, 34; Isaiah 40:31) and learned to submit to his protracted plan. In so doing, they not only increased their faith, but gave Jehovah glory.
Dear reader, are you ever impatient with God? Are you tired of waiting? It is quite possible that you are in the crockpot–right where the Almighty wants you to be.
–by Mike Benson