Instant Gratification

Ezra 1-2, I Corinthians 1:18-31, 2:1-5, Psalms 27:7-14 , Proverbs 20:22-23

I love reading those Buzzfeed posts that feature all the great things from the 90's this up coming generation will never experience. The list includes that phone signal with DSL, waiting to call someone after 9pm due to phone charges, waiting days for film to be developed (and finding out your finger was in half of the photos). The list goes on and I know the generation before me is shaking their head saying "you have no idea how good you had it 90's child. You should have seen my decade!"  It's all relative.  Divan and I roll our eyes at Everest's "need" for instant gratification: a picture is taken, "let me see it momma!" The phone or iPad is "buffering/thinking"...he shows it with a confused look on his face like "what's going on?" The struggle is real. With each passing day we are becoming a people that expects more and more instant gratification. So to read today's passages that are about waiting and waiting, it took me a while to dwell on that and what it means. 

To be honest, I don't have an answer or definition of "Waiting on the Lord."  The Jews had to wait for generations and generations until they were able to return to their homeland under the reign of King Cyrus. They then had to wait years and years for the Temple to be rebuilt. They waited on the Lord and His timing. This doesn't mean that it was always a quiet or patient act of waiting. Nonetheless, they waited. 

In Psalms, David writes, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:14 NIV in the same verse he says wait. We want  things now. We want prayers answered, things to happen, or x,y, and z to occur in our time. It's not easy to wait, this is probably why David even said "be strong and take heart". Waiting on God sometimes entails extra will, emotions, mental processing, or emotional strength. We may need to wait on God for good health, job situations, a desired spouse, or loved one to return to Him. 

I know it's easier said than done, but that's almost the point. We can't do it by ourselves. We must be aligned with God in-order to have the desire or strength to wait. I'm praying tonight that we may wait on the Lord. Trust his timing and perfect wisdom in this messy world.