Have you ever been in a hurry to get to a destination and you are stopped by sudden traffic? I hate that. It seems that you are crawling at a snail’s pace – or maybe the snail is crawling faster. A few years ago my husband and I were on our way home from a weekend trip in Gatlinburg, TN and we got caught in a 4-hour traffic jam from a semi trailer chemical spill. We were at almost a complete stand-still for 4 hours. People were running out of gas and pulling off the side of the road. Others were raising the hoods on their cars to allow some air to flow to cool down the engine. It was 4 lanes of traffic and no exit in sight. No where to go. We just had to be patient and sit. Fortunately we had snacks, a cooler full of water, a tank full of gas and magazines to read.
Have you ever prayed for something over and over and just felt like you never could see an answer in sight? Or you see part of an answer and things look like they are going in the direction you are praying for and then things either take a sudden turn or stop or slow down? It’s very frustrating.
As I was reflecting on some of my “repetitive” prayers that I have been praying for a long time, this traffic jam came to mind. There was nothing we could do except trust that the police officers and proper personnel would get the accident cleaned up as soon as they could. We couldn’t do a thing to help. We couldn’t go faster or change lanes or take an exit to get to our destination any sooner. We had to sit and wait.
Psalm 27:13-14 says: “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
Just like when praying for something specific, we have to trust that God is doing the right thing in the right timing. No matter what we do, we can’t make it go any faster. We just have to sit and wait and continue to pray. We keep “refueling” through Bible reading, worship and additional prayer. It’s very hard to wait for the Lord’s timing but trust me, it’s better to go in His timing and not make a mess and cause an accident and have to sit for 4 extra hours because to God a minute is like a 1000 years.
We just need to be patient, keep refueling and not give up. I am confident God’s cleaning up the mess right now!
