Were you ever given a promise, and then without realizing it, your imagination took you waaaaaaay down the road to a presumed finish? At the beginning, you were so excited just thinking about getting what you asked for; you couldn’t wait to have it!
Waiting for a promise is hard enough for adults, but children have a very limited sense of time and patience. Okay, children have no patience! I’m pretty much like a child in that respect. However, all personal weaknesses aside, promises are considered sacred oaths that can never be broken. Whenever we ask someone for a commitment or necessary favor, the first thing out of our mouths is, “Do you promise?” It’s easy to forget the human element in making promises. The promise maker has absolutely no wiggle room in case of emergencies. What’s that expression we’ve all learned…”A promise is a promise!” We stake our integrity on it.
God goes so far as to say that anyone who trusts in Him will not be disappointed, nor put to shame -Isaiah 49:23, Romans 10:11, and 1 Peter 2:6. All three times, trusting and waiting are part of the equation. Patience seems to be a requirement for just about anything that’s significant and worth the wait. That’s because we don’t ever know the future, and as hard as we may try, we can’t control it. We sometimes torment ourselves by trying to make it happen on our own, or we can allow ourselves to sink into despair assuming we are defeated. OR…we can wait for the promise to come at the right time. I have tried baking many batches of cookies, and then ruined the dough by taking them out of the oven too soon. When I was a child, I would eagerly wait for newly planted marigold seeds to sprout, only to kill them by digging them up to peek at their progress. We can’t rush through the growth of a plant, and we can’t rush through receiving a promise. If we have to wait, it doesn’t mean the promise was broken. A promise is made on the terms of the person who made the promise. If we take it upon ourselves to change the timing and the rules, we will most likely be disappointed every time. That promise basically becomes something of our insistence, and that doesn’t necessarily have an outcome that we would want!
God’s promises are a sure thing, because He already knows that the gift will arrive at the right time. If we’re disappointed, then He’s not finished yet. If we decide out of impatience or discouragement to fly off course and rush the process, then we can’t be angry at the results. The cookies will be raw, and the marigolds won’t grow. Timing is everything!
Dance on.
Grace Notes 