Awhile back I wrote about the seven ways to wrestle in prayer. The first one was to seek wisdom from God. The second one was to rejoice in God’s time and seasons. That’s where I continued to get stuck. Rejoicing in God’s time and seasons means, to me, hands off – don’t worry about it. I have a hard time with “hands off”. My reactions to situations are so different than God. I want to hurry up. I want to jump in and fix everything. God slows down. God takes time to think.
Then, this morning, I came upon a simple story that explains why my reactions to God’s timing is so different from his. In the story a man told his family he didn’t want a party for his birthday. When the day arrived, the family insisted they were taking him out to dinner and he insisted he wanted a quiet family dinner at home. They were having none of it and finally convinced him to get ready to go out. He lazily climbed out of his easy chair and took his time getting dressed. They were all dressed and kept urging him to move faster. He couldn’t understand their strange behavior. When they arrived at the restaurant, walked inside and everyone yelled surprise, he suddenly understood why their behavior was so different from his. They knew about the party. They had already smelled the cake. They piled up the party hats and presents. He had no knowledge of any of it.
So it is with God’s timing and seasons. God knows about the party. We know nothing, so accepting God’s timetable is a hard deal for us. From now on when I stumble on number two in wrestling with prayer, I’ll remind myself that God knows about the party and I don’t.
And so, as another day goes by, today that story helped me relax and begin my day with a little more peace, patience, and grace, I hope it did the same for you, and….I have written.
One more time:
Wrestling In Prayer:
1. Keep coming back to God for wisdom
2. Rejoice in God’s seasons and timing
3. Determine to want what God wants
4. Speak out what you want
5. Pray against the opposition
6. Refuse to get discouraged
7. NEVER GIVE UP!
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