Sausage Too Hot
A few weeks ago, I was cooking sausage in a skillet for breakfast. The sausage was done, so I turned off the heat and transferred the sausage to my plate using a spatula. I sat down at the table with a fork and knife and waited before I started to eat. The sausage had just come off the skillet, so I knew it was too hot to eat just yet.
My daughter Willow - here's a picture of her:
My daughter Willow came toddling over to my knee and started making baby noises, indicating that she wanted a bite of whatever I was eating. I tried to explain to Willow that the sausage was too hot to eat just yet, but unfortunately she couldn't understand. Willow continued to insist on being fed some sausage. I continued to try to explain that the sausage was too hot. Willow got frustrated and started to cry.
Now, eventually the sausage did cool down, and Willow got the sausage she desired. But a few tears were shed before she finally got what she wanted.
As I was sitting down to breakfast with Willow that morning, I couldn't help but think of the dynamics that sometimes exist between us and God. There are times in our lives when we'll be praying for something; and as time passes by, that prayer request remains unanswered, and we begin to wonder why.
Psalm 22:1
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
The truth is that sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers as soon as we'd like, because He knows that if He did, we would be worse off for it.
Romans 8:26
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
I'll give you an example from my own life. Soon after I got saved, I developed the desire to get married and start a family. I started to pray, asking God to help me find the right woman. Long story short: two years passed by, and I still hadn't found a woman to marry. By the end of those two years, I was definitely a little disheartened.
Now, however, looking back on it, I understand why God didn't bring me and Joy together during those initial two years. I was recently saved - what you might call a "babe in Christ" - and I still had a lot of growing up to do. In fact, when Joy and I first started dating, I was so immature, that I nearly botched the whole relationship several times. It was purely by God's grace that we eventually did get married. If God had brought us together any earlier than He did, I would have most likely have ruined the whole relationship.
It's exactly like Willow. Willow wanted the sausage. She continued to ask for the sausage. And it wasn't that I didn't want to give Willow the sausage. I did. But I delayed giving it to her because I knew that she couldn't handle it just yet - it was too hot.
There will be times in our lives when we'll be praying God for something, and it's not that God doesn't want to answer our prayer. He does. But He knows that He has to do it in his right timing. If He were to do so any earlier, we wouldn't be able to receive it, and the blessing would go spilled on the floor.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
So let's be patient. Let's trust God, that he knows what’s best. Keep praying. And eventually the answer will come at the perfect time.
Psalm 27:14
Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
