He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11.
Ahhh...if we could all just work in our own time. Think about how easy things would be! We would get the job we wanted (instantly), we would get the family we wanted (instantly), and everything would be at our fingertips 24/7. Can you think of how much easier that would make it?
Think again.
Instantaneous results do not make us more pleased and or make our life easier...in fact, quite the contrary.
In church last Sunday, at Calvary Chapel Thousand Oaks in Newbury Park, CA, Pastor Rob showed a video of a comedian -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk (don't watch the very end due to explicit language).
Instant results do not mean happiness. If we were given the spouse we wanted right away or the job we wanted right away without the anticipation...how would we feel? The same way we feel when we sneak a peek at our Christmas gifts in early December to see what our parents got us. Then on Christmas morning, we are not surprised or even excited for that gift because our anticipation is killed by our impatience and disobedience.
What if we could peek into the future? See God's layout beforehand. Would it really be that exciting, amazing, fulfilling or wonderful to go through life? Absolutely not. Because we desire rapid results we fail to find God's grace and hand in everything we do. The Lord created us in his image...knowing full well that if we knew all the gifts we would get for Christmas none of us would enjoy the process of opening them.
When we ask God, Why not now? Why not in my time? The answer is because it’s not Christmas yet. The Lord is making us wait so when he does give a gift of marriage, friendship, employment, or any of our other desires, we will cherish the process of opening them, reflect on how long we have wanted them, remember how we yearned to have them in our hands, and always remember who gave us the gifts.
Before we open the Lords gifts, God first wants us to open his gift of Love.
It is just like opening an Xbox game before you open the Xbox itself. (Weird analogy, but possibly we could also say, it's like opening the gift of Barbie’s clothing before you open your Barbie doll). You can't enjoy the Barbie doll clothing or the Xbox game unless you have the Barbie to dress and the Xbox to play the game with. Simple concept right? Well, much harder to accept when it comes to knowing the timing of God's gifts.
In order to open God's gift of a spouse, job, family, or dream you have to first open God's gift of LOVE.
To Katie, From God. Inside - infinite and sacrificial love so that you may know how to love your spouse, be grateful for your job, and know how to accept God’s timing. You must have the first so you can enjoy the second. And you must take time to unwrap and understand God's gift of Love before you are ready to open any other gifts – especially a spouse, family, friends, and jobs.
Lesson: Accept God's timing. Understand God’s timing. Embrace God’s Timing. God's timing is perfect. .
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11.
So I leave you with these parting words. The anticipation, waiting, obedience, discovery, process, and path are all part of God's Christmas morning. Pray always and fervently about the process and obedience to God's will before your own will and Christmas will be just around the corner.
In Christ,
Katie
