I was walking along Lake Superior in northern
Minnesota and suddenly I spotted something that reminded me of one of my
daughters and so I thought that I would take a quick photo and send it to her
in a text using my I-Phone.
This is a very simple request for my I-Phone;
take a photo and send it via a text. This is something that people do every day
in a moment, an instant; an infinitesimal or very short space of time.
That is unless you don’t have enough bars on
your phone to send it.
Generally speaking, the number of bars being
displayed on your cell phone gives a general idea of whether you have a good
chance of making a call or performing simple tasks such as sending a photo via
a text.
I looked at my phone, saw I had three bars, and decided that I could send it to my daughter. But, just as I was about to send the text and
photo, the bars on my phone dropped from three to “No Service” and I got
a message that my text was not delivered.
No big deal; I thought to myself; I would wait until I had service and re-send the text and photo.
No big deal; I thought to myself; I would wait until I had service and re-send the text and photo.
I walked further up the
shoreline and found a new hot spot at which I had three bars and tried again to send the photo and text.
And once again just as I was
about to send the text and photo, the bars on my phone dropped from three to
“No Service”. And once again I got a message that my text was not delivered.
This went on for about three or
four times until I was able to send the spontaneous photo to one of my
daughters. And, it caused me to become a little bit frustrated that something
that really should have taken less than a minute ended up taking ten to fifteen
minutes.
As I pondered just how long
it took, I thought about how long most things that are valuable in lives take;
especially when we are talking about changing areas of our lives.
I thought back to how long it
has taken for some areas of my life to change including attitudes, behaviors,
responses, beliefs, thoughts, perceptions, words, etc. I had asked years ago
and still there seemed to be no lasting change.
No matter how much I wanted
them to change or how quickly I desired for them to change, there was nothing
in my life that has changed in a moment, an
instant; an infinitesimal
or very short space of time.
Can God do a
miracle and change us instantly; yes. I have personal witnessed many medically documented miracles. We see this multiple times in the Bible
that He is the God of miracles. But never do we see Him changing a person 100%
in an instant. He doesn’t do things that way.
In fact, if
He were to point out all that He will do regarding change in our lives over our
lifetime; we would be overwhelmed; it would be too much to bear!
Why do I write this? Because
sometimes we can come up with slick ways to guarantee results in just a short
time. This is true for physical (weight loss, Viagra, etc.), mental (take a
pill or a drink, or read a book or go to a counseling session, etc.) or
spiritual (say a quick prayer and all will be OK).
But the truth is that real,
lasting changes take time. It is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight no
matter how much we will it to happen.
And we need to be OK with
that. Or it will drive us and those who love us nuts as we strive to be changed
in a moment, an instant; an infinitesimal or very short space of time.
Instead
we need to have confidence in God’s ability to hear our prayers, see our
surrender, and let Him do what only He can do: Change us into something that we
are not yet but hope to be.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the
members of the church that he started in Philippi; “There has
never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great
work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very
day Christ Jesus appears.” (Philippians 1:6 MSG)
The Apostle Paul wrote to the
members of the church that he started in Corinth; “But we all,
with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of
the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV)
Let go of your frustration as you wait until real change comes. Keep going forward as you look for the "hotspot in your life when and where God makes the real and lasting changes in your life. Keep trusting Him.
I'm pulling for you!
Let go of your frustration as you wait until real change comes. Keep going forward as you look for the "hotspot in your life when and where God makes the real and lasting changes in your life. Keep trusting Him.
I'm pulling for you!
New King
James Version
(NKJV)
Scripture
taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used
by permission. All rights reserved.
The Message (MSG)
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