Blessed Beyond Belief
Kelsey McCann
As young adults, we are constantly bombarded with questions about the future both within ourselves and from others: who will I marry? where will I work? Is this what I want to do with my life afterall?….etc. etc. etc. This internal struggle robs us of our joy and peace that God wants to give us if we just wait on and trust Him.
Easier said that done sometimes though….right? These mini trials we go through may seem like the prolonged 40 years in the desert or the 100 years Sarah waited to have a baby. 2 months may seem like an eternity but in the eyes of God, it’s but a moment in time.
This time of life for myself and for many others I’m sure is a time of waiting. However, in this time of waiting, I learn more and more that He is desiring to teach me something and use me for his purposes every single day I wake up. Each and every day is an absolute gift from Him, and as my pastor here at the Crossing said last weekend “get over yourself”…It is not about me, I am not here for my own selfish desires but to glorify my Maker and do His will :).
Whenever we take matters into our own hands and do what we want when we want, it will never turn out the way we want it because it is done on our time and in our way not His time and in His way. My thoughts are so consumed on things of this world so often that I idolize certain things here in the world. I want Philippians 3:8-10 to be true of me: “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
I want to know God greater than anything else. He fully satisfys us in the ways we long to be satisfied in the depths of our hearts. He wants the best for us and wants to make us happy, bring us joy, bring us peace. We are not promised a spouse or that dream job, etc., but we are promised that He will be with us to the end of time and then He is coming back to make us whole in Him. Whenever we lose heart and become discouraged in this world, we can find hope and joy again in remembering that these things will quickly pass away, but He never will.
If we are waiting for something (which that probably is all of us), we must learn to wait patiently. “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Romans 8:25. The Lord knows the desires of our hearts, we have to trust trust trust and know that He is faithful and will provide all that we need for life in godliness. ”…in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28. His timing is perfect, and until He says “it is time”, let us give it up to Him and let go of our anxiety and live in the joy and peace of the current day. As my parents always say :), “Be here now.” I want to include my devotional from this morning in this post:
From Michelle Mckinney Hammond’s Single-Minded Devotion (pg. 21 entitled God’s Perfect Timing):
“Have you pondered the idea that God seems liberated by time while we are bound by it? We spend most of our lives anticipating when something is going to happen. If too much times passes, we grow weary and disappointed and question God. Anxiety and mistrust toward Him alters our conversations and changes our dispositions.
None of this distracts God or makes Him move any faster to fulfill our requests and desires. He knows the plans He has for us. He already knows His completed work will be worth the wait. Ah, yes indeed, it will be a beautiful thing. A ‘good and perfect’ thing. We will hang our heads when we see what He purposed all along and berate ourselves for not trusting Him.
How conflicted we are. The Holy Spirit within us rests in God’s perfect timing and feels no urgency because of His awareness of eternity. But our earthbound hearts fear running out of time. We wonder what God is up to and why He is taking so long. We can’t fathom that God, in anticipation of our joy, will not settle for presenting us with less than a perfect gift. Perhaps that is why we need faith.
What desire do you think God has ‘taken too long’ to answer? Are you truly ready to receive what you asked for?
Dear heavenly Father, forgive my impatience. Help me trust Your perfect timing as well as Your heart toward me. Today I choose to wait on You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
‘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”
