July 7: But I want it now!!!

1 Chronicles 4:5-5:17

Acts 25:1-27

Psalm 5:1-12

Proverbs 18:19

"In the morning, Lord, You hear my voice,

     In the morning I lay my requests before You and wait expectantly."

Ps 5:3

I didn't always used to pray in the mornings, when I got up.  I used to get out of bed and get my day started - no time to waste!  Up, shower, brush teeth (for those who know me, a shave is rarely, if ever, necessary), in the car and off to school or work or wherever the day needed me.  It took a long time, a LOT of prayer on my parents' part, and not an insignificant amount of painful instruction before I began to pray in the morning.  And it was tough to build the habit...I'd get a few days going, then I'd easily fall away.  

Now, with thanks to God, my parents, my wife and our church, it has become, and remains (for the most part!) a daily morning habit.  And I thought that was all that was required.  Come to God, present your requests...little did I know the harder part was yet to come.

"...and wait expectantly."

Not just wait - which is difficult enough for me, the 48 year old epitome of a five year old crying "I want it NOW!!!", but wait EXPECTANTLY.  Which, as I take it, is to say with the certainty that your prayer has been heard and is, even then, though you might not see how, is ALREADY BEING ANSWERED.  Someone tried to tell me that God's seeming inaction in and of itself was an answer to my prayer...even today, when I hear that, I listen politely but my head and my heart are saying - you guessed it - "but I want it NOW!!!".  

Waiting is difficult.  The truth is, waiting expectantly should be easier, because to wait without expectation is to wait not knowing whether or not your prayer has been answered, if it is going to be answered, or if it has even been heard.  To wait expectantly one has to know not only that God has heard your prayer, but has already answered it, an answer that will become apparent, will come to fruition in HIS time, not yours.   I like to think that the best evidence we wait expectantly are peace and joy, regardless of the circumstances we face, because the overriding circumstance at that time is that God has heard and answered our prayers.

But whatever I said above, expectant waiting is still difficult, particularly in the instant gratification society in which we live.  But it works, and it is wonderful to see - today, for example, we finally saw God's answer to the prayers with which our church stormed heaven, in behalf of our pastor.  We saw it months ago with two other congregants, one who finally got a new heart, the other one brought back from her coma at death's door.  So if it is such a good trait, perhaps we should ask God for it.  And trust that He will already have given it to us.