To Wait or Not To Wait....The Banana Blunder

Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (NIV)

Willing to do anything to give my daily ritual of a chocolate breakfast drink a shake up, I grabbed one of the new bananas next to the blender this morning. Ok, so they were a little green at the top, but the rest of the banana was golden and ripe. Immediately after breaking off the top, I knew I was heading in the wrong direction. You know that resistance you get when you start to pull back the banana peel and part of it clings to the fruit? Well, I ignored that warning, threw the hard banana into the blender and hit the liquefy button. I anticipated a great new taste as I watched the yummy chocolate and banana swirl.

Wow...were my taste buds in for a BIG disappointment. Yuck! It tasted chalky, a little bitter and pasty. Even after that initial swallow, I continued to gulp down my breakfast. I couldn’t quit now - I had already mixed it together. Of course, an hour later I totally regretted my decision. My stomach wanted to remove that banana! How I wished I had waited one more day to eat the banana. One more day would have made all the difference between gross and great!

Do you ever feel like your life has been a series of short stories on waiting? Waiting to get to high school. Waiting to get out of high school. Waiting for your driver’s license. Waiting for a car. Waiting to start dating. Waiting for a date. I don't know about you, but sometimes while in the middle of waiting, it seems like some of my deepest dreams and desires will never come to pass or I feel that God has forgotten about them.

Now, I am starting to see life in a new light. I see that sometimes I have actually made choices to wait; waiting for the Lord to do His thing in His time. This waiting has been good and has led to many blessings, like waiting to give away my virginity until I got married. Don't get me wrong; there have definitely been those times when I didn't wait. For example, I didn’t wait to buy a car that really was reliable; instead I just bought what I could afford. Hopefully, as I grow though, I will see the true benefits of waiting for the Lord and those times of getting ahead of God will be less frequent.

My Prayer for Today:

Dear Lord, Please help me to be patient when you call me to wait. Sometimes, it is so hard, Lord. Help me to trust You, knowing that every time You will do exactly what is best for me and what will glorify You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Related Resources:

A Young Woman’s Walk with God, by Elizabeth George

Think About It:

Do I struggle to wait?

Do I often feel like the Lord is late or wonder where He is when things don’t seem to be going right?

What can I do to encourage myself and wait on the Lord instead of getting ahead of Him?

Live It:

Grab your journal and write out the things you struggle with the most when it comes to waiting on the Lord.

Share your struggle with your parent or a good friend and ask them to pray for you.

Commit to the Lord that the next time the issue of waiting comes up, you will ask Him for strength to wait.

Power Verses:

Romans 8:25, "But if we hope for what we do not see, then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.” (NKJV)

Psalm 25: 4-5, "Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." (NIV)

Ecclesiastes 3:1, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven..." (NKJV)




© 2008 by Lynn Cowell. All rights reserved.

Labels: deeper faith, radical faith, radical purity