In a while

Nothing God is working in our souls is instant. Oh, how I wish it was. How about a snap of the fingers and the things we learn in the hard stuff of life – like being more compassionate, or loving, or patient, or trusting, or (fill in the blank)_____________ – would be done?

Trials – trivial or monumental – often seem too hard to bear. We lose patience with loved ones. We want to escape. We want an instant fix.

Today I wait for the water pump replacement (next week), for the sediment in the water to disappear, and for a plumber to come fix the toilet problems happening simultaneously. Going out this morning I saw a motorcyclist lying in the street shortly after an accident with help just arriving. I pray for the unknown people involved in this. It makes the water woes seem trivial.

Then I feel the stirring of the Holy Spirit – seemingly making me aware that yes, in comparison to an accident, water pumps are trivial – but that doesn’t mean in my life they need to be dismissed. I am never dismissed. God knows that the temporary problems aren’t the only problems I’m facing. And He knows this about you as well.

This is when we need to grab hold of His truths. Go ahead, ask for an instant fix. It is ok to ask. If the repairman comes a week early, thank you. If He doesn’t, I can trust God to do more than I ask or imagine even in this.

“So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that He has promised. ‘For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And My righteous ones will live by faith.’ “ (Hebrews 10:35-38a)

And there it is again, the working in our souls of faith. Faith in the big and little. Faith in frustration, faith in fear, faith in anger, faith in sorrow – faith in joy, faith in good times, faith in prosperity, faith in success. Trials may come and go or may come and stay. But the Faithful One, Jesus our Savior, He never leaves us. We can do all these things, even today’s things, knowing He is perfecting our faith and someday…perfect eternity. Just a little while He whispers.