God Evening Family!Christmas 2010 is now behind us as we look toward the coming of 2011, however, I still am pondering a thought that came to me as I was preparing for Christmas day.
Jesus, the promised Savior of Israel came as an infant.
The King of kings came as a baby that needed to be nurtured and rocked, fed and burped, changed and dressed. How....natural.
Is it just me or am I the only one that looks for something huge and NOW when God makes a promise? When God speaks words like deliverance, blessing , or calling I have always presumed that something immediate and supernatural will occur.
God never thinks the way I do. God likes the words process, patience, and timing. I personally hate those words....admit it, so do you.
Perhaps you're not certain of where I'm going with this, so lets imagine for a moment a man that has lived in financial difficulty for most of his life. This person gets not just one Word from the Lord promising financial prosperity, but several over the course of some years and from different sources. He is convinced that God will bless him and is waiting for the financial windfall. A check in the mail, a winning lottery ticket, gold found hidden under the floor boards of his house.
Instead one day a door opens for him to start a business. Now this is no grand, fully developed company. It's just a little store, with little inventory,and he's going to have to invest some of his own money, lots of hard work, as well as endure disappointment to get it going.
At this point the man throws an angry fist at God for not keeping His Word to prosper him and like the servant with one talent walks away from an amazing chance to partner with God in His blessing.
God is in the growing business, He likes to start small, and it's His love and wisdom that makes us go through the process.
Jesus was the answer to God's promise to save mankind and restore man's intimate relationship with Himself. Yet, He wasn't born in a palace with servants attending to His every whim. He was born a regular guy whose parents couldn't even get a decent room for Him to be born in. Like everyone else He had to grow from baby to manhood and God was pleased with the process.
God can and does deliver people in an instant. About two weeks after I got saved I wanted to get rid of my two pack a day smoking habit so I gave my cigarettes to a friend and prayed for help. I woke up the next morning with no desire to smoke and except for the occasional fire in my kitchen I've been smoke free for over 15 years.
Ever since then God has chosen to drag out my promises and make me go through processes that normally take me years. As a single woman I asked for a godly husband but it took me about 10-12 years after the honeymoon to realize I really had actually married one and I needed to stop trying to create him in my image. I asked for the fruit of the Spirit and He took me through alot of misunderstanding, accusation, and what I considered unfair treatment for 3-5 years until I finally started exhibiting some of that fruit. I asked God to use me in some awesome ministry and He put me in the cleaning and children's ministry. It took me years for me to realize God was honoring me and not punishing me.
You know God is eternal and not bound by time. He is in absolutely no hurry. So when we ask for Him to fulfill His promise He gets to work. The problem is we are not like the three wise-men who beheld the baby Jesus and knew right away He was the Great King. We ask for great things and God sends our answer, yet we can't at all perceive how scrubbing a toilet or teaching kids is going to prosper us or make us great people....but, you know something, it does.
In the process of growing from babe to manhood Jesus was tempted just like we are, and became our compassionate High Priest who lives to make intercession for us.
In the process of just obeying God in whatever assignment or hardship He puts before us we too learn compassion and mercy. We also learn courage, fortitude, and patience. We learn to simply take God's will and go through the process....cheerfully.
After that, the Word of God came to me: "Zerubbabel started rebuilding this Temple and he will complete it. That will be your confirmation that God-of-the-Angel-Armies sent me to you. Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings? They'll change their tune when they see Zerubbabel setting the last stone in place!" Zechariah 4:10 (The Message)
