It's no secret that we are living in a very fast paced, technologically advanced age. Our kids have no idea what it is to wait to purchase an album when they can get any song in virtually seconds, online. Saving up to buy something? Why? With instant credit.
How impatient do we get when our DSL takes a more than a few seconds to upload a page. We can be contacted at any given moment via cell phone, instant messages, instant email, instant pictures, instant updates.....most everything is immediate & if it is *not*...Yikes!
I'm not writing anything new or that you don't already know.
However, this is all man's timing. Our technology and pace of life may have changed but the truth is God's has not. A tree takes the same amount of time to mature today, as it did 2000 years ago. A baby still takes about 9 months to fully mature to birth. Flowers are not produced instantaneously, they must all start from seeds. Fruit still grows on trees.
God has not changed his timing. We are under His concept of time, not ours. We can get so rushed sometimes and feel frustrated when we do not see instant results; in ministry, in our personal lives, relationships, in answers. Right? Are we expecting instant messages form God? How hard is it for us to pray and WAIT for an answer? How long are we willing to wait, if we even do.
John the Baptist, I have decided, is my Biblical hero. I love everything I have read about him from the Bible. But I think more of his mother. Elizabeth and Mary both were humbled and blessed to give birth to John and the Messiah himself.
Promises were given to them, about the children they carried in their womb but how long before their mission was actually fulfilled. We know Christ did not begin his ministry until he was 30 years old. 3 years later he was dead. How long Mary herself, had to wait, and I imagine, pray over her child, to see his mission and purpose fulfilled.
Elizabeth, how long she waited (and possibly given up hope) to have a child of her own and then to see his purpose fulfilled. Which then fulfilled their own very purpose..to raise up these men.
It can be easy to feel discouraged when we are not seeing immediate results. I challenge myself and anyone else who may read this to take time to wait. Wait for the investment pay off. Obedient children aren't born, they are raised. You don't wake up and run a marathon in one day. You must train for it.
The same goes for ministry or answers to prayer. Keep on keeping on. I believe the results of most of our efforts pay out in years. Don't stop praying. Don't give up. Don't stop training. Personally, I am beginning to see results of a vision I was given over 10 years ago! I can barely believe it myself. I didn't even believe it was possible when I first got the idea but it's happening. And it's quite possible if I had stayed the course from the beginning, it may have happened even sooner.
Great post Katy! It's always a good thing to stop and remember that we are in God's timing and God's economy and God's plans. . . .not man's.
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