Instant gratification. We live in a society where we crave it ,because we have absolutely everything at our fingertips. Raise your phone to your face, ask Siri a question, and BOOM… five seconds later you have your answer.
Faith does not involve instant gratification. When we pray we don’t get an immediate answer, and when we do get an answer most of the time it isn’t easy. The answers to our prayers are rarely easy; rarely what we want, and often we have to decipher them.
Faith involves relying on God. Trusting that He is going to do amazing work in His own time, not necessarily ours. I experienced this A LOT this summer. Whether it was talking one on one with a student, standing up front and sharing the LORD’s word with a hundred students, or sitting and talking with a community member, I learned that God’s agenda doesn’t run on the earthly clock we all go by, but by His divine one.
Learning that God’s clock is the greatest one out there is hard. It is hard to accept that the time we run on isn’t perfect. It is hard being patient to see how God works. It is hard when you spend day after day preaching His love, grace, and hope, and it seems like nothing is happening. It seems like you are wasting your breath and time because no one is falling on their knees to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It seems like nothing is sinking in.
Almost everyday this summer I sat on the front steps of 555 in Whiteclay and talked with people, listened to their stories, loved on them, and when they asked or I felt like it was time, I would share with them the gospel. I would pray with them when asked to pray. Pray for their son or daughter that was left at home. Pray for their family member who was sick. Pray for their sobriety… I would pray.
If you ask me if the man I prayed with every week left Whiteclay to get sober did, I’ll say no. If you ask me if the woman who said she was going home to take care of her children after losing her oldest daughter actually did, I’ll tell you no. If you ask me if the man who was prayed for by me and a group of students stayed sober after he promised he would and went around telling everyone that they needed to get sober too, I’ll explain how we saw him with a beer the very next day.
If I relied on instant gratification for satisfaction, this summer would have been torturous. If I needed to see the fruit that came from the ministry, then I would be incredibly disappointed. But, I know that God’s work is perfect, and His timing is impeccable. He used me, He used the team, and He used the students to plant seeds. We planted seeds everyday. We planted seeds everywhere we went by sharing His love with everyone we met. Do I wish that I could see the fruit of his work? Absolutely. But, I know that those seeds have been planted. I know that if they are continued to be cared for that one day they will blossom. I know that someday, God’s garden is going to grow. I may not see those results here on earth, but I know that one day, I will see my friend from Whiteclay, I will see that student who was forced by a parent to go on a trip, and I will run up to them and give them a mighty big hug on the streets of Heaven.
Instant gratification is overrated. Would it be nice to be able to snap our fingers and make all of the world’s problems disappear? Absolutely. However, when I sit back and think about how often I’ve wanted to do that in my life and think about how that hasn’t happen, I am grateful that my prayers weren’t answered in an instant. I’m grateful that while God did answer my prayers that it wasn’t in the exact moment I asked Him to, and it wasn’t in the specific way I wanted Him to. And although it is hard to sit there, see all the pain and suffering in the world and know that it isn’t going to be fixed in an instant, I am at peace knowing that God’s timing is perfect. Maybe we won’t have instant gratification when we pray… but we will, always, have gratification.
