I was asked to write a weekly devotional for the local newspaper for the month of September.  I wanted to share them with you as well, so here we go….

It’s Like Waiting on Pancakes…

I was cooking breakfast for dinner earlier this week.  I was craving pancakes.  As soon as the pan heated, I poured in the first of the batter.  I tried to wait patiently, but my lack of restraint got the best of me.  I flipped too early, and the whole thing became a mess in the pan.  I ended up having to wash out the pan and start again.  This time as I poured the batter, I reminded myself, “wait for lots of bubbles before you flip.”

Sometimes, waiting on God can feel like waiting on pancakes.  You have the batter mixed, the pan warmed, the butter is browned, and it all looks like a go; however, we have to be careful that we don’t flip in our own timing.  Habakkuk 2:2-3 says, “And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by. For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day. [Heb. 10:37, 38.]”

Habakkuk was to write the vision and wait.  Wait on what?  The appointed time.  Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there is an appointed time for everything.  God has a clock, and unfortunately, it doesn’t line up with ours most of the time.

So, what do we do in the waiting?  Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to, “Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.”  My job while waiting is to lean into Him, acknowledge Him, know Him, rely on Him, obey Him.  There’s a pattern here.  I can’t move when I want things done because I want things done yesterday, and that’s not how this works.  The very creator of the universe wants to be involved in my everyday, grocery shopping, work and school going life.  He’s longing for worship and fellowship everyday not just Sunday.  He longs for us to wait for all the bubbles to form and things to line up before we flip.

I challenge you to “stand fast in faith” while you wait.  Know that sometimes, you may have to wait a while, and that’s ok.  My Mammaw always took my Mom and her brothers and sister to church when they were growing up, but my Pappaw would never go.  He had gotten hurt in church early on in their marriage, and he told her, “If this is how these Christians are going to act, I don’t want any part of it.”  He allowed the misguided actions of others to control him, which is never a good thing, but that story is for another time.

My Mammaw continued to be faithful.  She continued to get all four kids ready every time the church doors were open, and she was faithful to continue to pray for my Pappaw.  She prayed that God would soften his heart, and she prayed that Pappaw would want a personal relationship with God once again.

Fifty years after my Mammaw started praying that prayer, long after their kids had moved out, gotten married, and had kids of their own, my Pappaw met my Mammaw in the kitchen after she came home from a midweek service.  He said, “Billie, I’ve got to talk to you!  While you were at church something happened.”

Mammaw was scared at first; however, her fear turned to tears of joy as Pappaw began to share how he felt like God had awoke him out of sleep.  He told her that he felt such an urgency to make things right with God and renew his relationship with God.  Pappaw had a dramatic shift in his life that night.  He truly repented!  He even called Mammaw’s pastor the next day and wanted to go out visiting the sick with the pastor that weekend.

FIFTY YEARS!  That pancake had to cook a long time!

Lamentations 3:25-26, “The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God’s word]. It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for the salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord.”