Theme:   All I Want for Christmas Is for God to Hurry Up

This eDevotional was written by a volunteer from Timberlake Church. 

READ: Isaiah 55:8-13

THINK: I have been in lots of different Christian circles throughout the years… different church settings, small group bible studies, and just simple friendships.  I am often with people going through some sort of distress or trouble. And often they confide something like, “We need a miracle—fast!”

My guess is all of us know what it’s like to feel that way! We can be facing difficult circumstances, a broken relationship, an unexpected tragedy... In our anxiety, we want God to intervene and we want it to happen NOW. Pastor Ben talked about our need for God to hurry up! Those experiences can be so difficult and challenging to our faith because His response isn’t always often in the time frame of our choosing. But here’s something to consider:

I often thought that “fast miracles” were a direct sign of God’s care and His attention to me personally.  And of course that quick response was a very effective way for me to make it through whatever trial or trouble I was experiencing.  But walking with the Lord over the years and really learning about God through His Word changed my thinking around this.

I discovered that the dramatic, divine interventions are only part of God’s care for us. I’ve seen that more often it’s His slower, unfolding miracles --- which are equally supernatural by the way --- which result in more lasting fruit in our lives.  In Isaiah 55 God used nature to illustrate this slower, fruitful process. Just as rain and snow water the earth, gradually producing seed for sowing and bread for eating, so will God carry out His purpose.

So when it seems like God is moving more slowly than you’d like, when He delays in responding maybe, just maybe, He’s working the kind of miracle we truly need— one that lasts! As Ben said it’s during the waiting time that He 1) gets our attention, 2) refines our desires, 3) gives us strength and 4) allows us to choose faithfulness. His miracles are not an instantaneous event all the time, but they are no less amazing and supernatural.

DO: What are you asking God to do for you quickly? Can you put aside that “Please God, NOW!” anxiety and just submit to Him and His timing?

PRAY: Lord, I know that I can trust You and Your perfect timing in all things… But it’s difficult sometimes. Help me to know that You are working even when it’s according to a schedule other than mine. I want your long-lasting work to be carried out in my life, so I give over whatever situation is causing me to feel anxious to you today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.