Special to the NNPA from the Houston Forward Times
When life gets really upside down with me spiritually, I get anxious and scattered. If not reminded by those closest to me, I get a gentle nudge from my wife to remember my perceived angst has nothing to with the answers to my problems. God’s already taken care of that. When I eventually calm down (and I always do), most of my current issues are related to time or my perceived lack thereof.
It’s then that I hear a sermon titled “There is no such thing as an emergency in eternity,” by Dr. Freddie D. Haynes III, Senior Pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas Texas. He reminds me and you that for those who claim Christianity, we err if we think God’s time must somehow be reconciled with our own.
We all tend to want what we want now, immediately, including those things we ask God for. It’s an unspiritual by product of the fast paced world in which we live. Be saved now. Answer my prayer now. Solve this for me now. Deliver me from this job, this person, this situation now. Some of us even have the nerve to question God’s judgment based on the amount of time we perceive Him to be taking to get around to our situation. Prayer is compared to texting waiting for God to text us back.
One thing I have learned the hard way I might add, is that God will answer and His answer will be right on time. His! It (the answer) will be one of three things: yes, no or not now. If you’re honest with yourself, the truth in this is hindsight that suggests God should be thanked for not giving you that which you begged and pleaded for. Was it a job? Maybe a person, some man or woman you couldn’t live without? How often can you give example after example that had you gotten what you prayed for, when you prayed for it, it would have been the worst possible thing that could have happened? It is now a certainty to you and anyone who knows you that it would have been a disaster. Some things I’ve learned through prayer. God delivers when He knows you can handle and or appreciate the blessing He is about to bestow.
That saying that most of us believe is biblical that God won’t put anything on you that you can’t handle cannot be proven by me. Many a time I have known I couldn’t go another further. And then something happened. God got me through it. I don’t know how but I do know it’s because I placed it in God’s hands and truly let it go because I certainly couldn’t deal with it. Let go. Let God. Jesus has already done the dirty work. “…It is not for you to know the times or the dates the father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” Acts 1:7-8.
This power I believe is evident when patience and prayer align and reveal to us that there is indeed a divine reason for us to experience whatever it is that we’re going through. Without these trials and tribulations, there can be no wisdom. Unless you submit to the will of God, there can be no salvation. Without salvation, prayer cannot be answered. My own salvation lets me know that until I could give it all up to God, I couldn’t and didn’t appreciate anything that was, shall we say, provided to me for my own spiritual good.
We see right past these things, these people who are placed in our lives to insure that we understand how blessed we really are when we are in a rush, when we are about to lose our minds, when we are so caught up in this world that we think this is forever. Well let me let you in on a little secret. It’s not. Once you trust the truth in this, like Abraham, there will be a ram that appears in the bush. And then you’ll understand that joy really does come in the morning.
