Delayed is not Denied!

Instant gratification. That is the definition of most of our current and contemporary lives. There use to be a time when if you wanted to talk to someone on the phone, you had to wait until you got home to make the call. Now we can call, text and im from anywhere on the planet at anytime. Do people even write letters anymore? Some may, but not many. We simply pick up the most recent version of the hottest electronic device and send an instant message. Bills don’t even come in the mail anymore, unless you choose to have them sent that way. Instead, you get email reminders, or reminders on your cell phone. For those who are good stewards of their money, there may even be automatic withdrawal from the bank. Food doesn’t have to be cooked and labored over. We simply drive thru or nuke it. Newspaper distributorship is a thing of the past. We now get the news via the web. We don’t really have to wait for two much of anything anymore.

Children born into this time cannot relate to a typewriter; they relate to computer and laptop only. Dial telephones are antiquated. The games we played as children are now in electronic version. Even games like kickball, soccer, baseball can all be conveniently played in the comfort of the living room through automated machinery.

This is all considered advancement and cutting edge. These are futuristic moves that represent the advancement of intelligence and mankind as a whole. But is there really something wrong with delayed gratification? If a child asks a parent for something; something as minor as a cookie after dinner, and the parent’s response is, “Just wait one minute.” – how many times in that one minute will the child repeatedly ask for the cookie? The child will ask and ask until the parent typically caves in and gives them the cookie. The parents’ intent was for the child to receive the cookie a little later. The child wanted to receive the cookie upon asking. Instant gratification versus delayed gratification.

If we are honest with ourselves, are we any different then our children? Do we wait for things that we want? Do we ask our Creator for something and expect immediate results, whether it be a better job, renewal of our health, our soul mate? And do we assume that the ‘lack of response’ in the time we determine to be sufficient is God’s denial of our request? Do we then question whether our faith is strong or whether he really loves us enough to grant the desires of our heart? Do we forego the work required to get and keep the things we want; preferring instead to leave it at the alter for God to work it out right away?

Delayed is not denied. Give some thought to answered prayers in God’s time. Were you not better prepared to receive them when he saw fit to bestow the blessing? Then think about things you gained without working hard for them; or that were given to you very quickly. What became of those things? Did you appreciate the magnitude of that blessing?

Delayed is not denied. Can you wait?