Are you tired of waiting? Are you trying to achieve something but getting nowhere? Are you nearly ready to give up? I get it, I do. I’m tired of waiting too.
I’ve had this passion in me to start Pure Gift for 4 years now and I’ve been working on it, but I seem to be getting nowhere. Should I just give up? Is it worth all my time and effort?
I heard a really great insight by Bishop Richard Lutwama from Uganda when he came to speak at our church. He spoke of God cooking. God seasons us with salt and sauces and then puts us in the corner and leaves us to marinate.
It hit a nail on the head for me.
That’s exactly what I feel like. The next bit really encouraged me…
Then, when we’re ready, God will present us to the world and they will taste and see that it is good!
So when it feels like we’re stuck we’re actually maturing and getting more character and flavour. All the waiting on God and pondering all he has told us is producing goodness in us so that at the right time we will be ready.
And when we’re ready we will be so full of the flavour of God that the world will see God through us, in what we say and do.
There are lots of examples of bible heros doing some pretty serious waiting and marinating:
- Abraham was promised a son and waited 25 years for Issac to be born.
- Joseph was given a vision that his brothers would bow down to him. He waited 22 years to see this in reality (2 of those years were spent in jail and 11 years as a slave).
- David was promised to be the next king of Israel and waited 15 years to become king over Judah and another 7 years to become king over all of Israel. So a 22 year wait in total.
“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” Romans 8:26-28 (MSG)
“God takes the time to do everything right—everything.
Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.” Isaiah 30:18
Kinda makes me want to keep marinating a bit longer…