Microwave God?

One minute feels terribly long sometimes like when you are sitting at the traffic light, ten minutes late for work, knowing you are still fifteen minutes away. Have you ever waited on someone to pick you up, but they were so many minutes late that you began to think they had forgotten you? As you wait all kinds of emotions set in from frustration to worry.
A minute may seem especially long, when you are ending a fast and standing in front of the microwave, watching the digital numbers tick down. I don’t have to tell you that we are a generation of impatient people. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you used a map instead of GPS? When was the last time you used an actual book dictionary instead of Google or a real phone book instead of the Yellow Pages online? Get my point?
Recently, as I stood in front of the microwave, preparing to end a fast, I watched my chicken and mashed potatoes spin on the tray. My stomach growled as the clock ticked down and the aromas escaped the machine. To get my mind off my hunger, I thought about a blessing that I have been waiting on from God for about three years. I thought, “Lord, I’ll be glad when You release my request to me because I’m as hungry for it as I am for that chicken in the microwave.”
Impatience got the better of me and I stopped the microwave with only fifty-eight seconds left to go. I pulled out the potatoes, stirred them, and took a taste. I was disappointed to find them still too cold in the center for my liking. As I placed them back inside I thought, “Good only fifty-eight seconds left.” Fifty-seven, fifty-six…then it hit me, what if God was like a microwave?
What if we could control the timer and set Him to release our blessing at will? Would we become so impatient to receive that we’d stop Him in the process, hindering Him from releasing the blessing at just the right temperature? Or would we become fearful and leave our blessing spinning so long that once we got it, it’d be too hot to handle?
Thinking on what I’m asking God for brings to mind my favorite scripture. Hebrews 10:35 NKJV says “Therefore do not cast away your confidence which has a great reward.” I know there is reward in waiting on God; Psalms 27:14 says “Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He will strengthen your heart, wait I say on the Lord.” These scriptures encouraged me to do just that. Though I have been waiting for what some would say is a long time for a particular release, I’ll keep waiting. I don’t want to stop the process and pull my blessing out before it’s time.
Are you waiting on anything from the Lord? If so, how are you waiting, patiently in prayer and peace of mind tapping your foot impatiently with your hand ready to hit “STOP” before the process is complete?
THINK ABOUT IT.
Published in "On the Rocks Arrest" 4/3/12