Wait for It: Slow Cooking

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. — Psalm 27:14

The slow cooker is somewhat of a mixed blessing. It makes dinner easy and virtually stress free, but it also makes your home smell delicious hours before the meal is actually ready to be eaten. Just try to put a roast with veggies and potatoes in the crock at 9:00 a.m. and see if your family isn’t asking to eat it by noon. The problem is that the meal won’t be edible until around 5:00 p.m. Unfortunately, everyone just has to wait.

Waiting when you’re hungry and you know good things are coming isn’t easy. It’s tempting to just sit around and stare at the slow cooker. Oh, but how wonderful is that meal when you allow it to do what it needs to do in order for it to be completely ready? How hungry for it are you when it’s finally placed before you? Aren’t you always glad you waited?

Christ-followers know that something really good is coming. We catch glimpses now and then. The Bible says that God has “set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We long for the beauty that awaits us, and at times we think we want it all right now. It’s not easy to wait.

Life can be difficult and relationships strained, and we just want Jesus to come back. New wounds are inflicted and old pains resurface. We get tired of the way people choose cruelty over kindness and grudges over grace. Forgiveness feels foreign, and we’re ready for the suffering to end.

We long for Him to swoop in and save the day because we’re tired of the waiting.

Could it be that, in our waiting, we spend too much time staring at the skies, longing for our rescue when we should be busying ourselves making sure others are just as ready for His return? Could it be that His delay is actually an act of mercy? The fact is that God is restraining Himself because He doesn’t want anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9).

Each day that the Lord tarries is another twenty-four-hour period when someone else continues to have a chance to choose Him. Won’t we be glad we waited?

It’s not easy to wait for You, Lord, but I know Your timing is perfect. Give me the strength and faith to finish my race well.

Excerpted with permission from Devotions from the Kitchen Table by Stacy Edwards, copyright Thomas Nelson.

* * *

Your Turn

Is the waiting painful today? Some seasons seem just too long and too hard, right? What are you praying for? I am praying for several changes that only the Lord can bring and several loved ones who need to meet Jesus. Who are you praying for? Come share with us on our blog. We want to hear from you! ~ Laurie McClure, Faith.Full