While You’re Waiting, God Is Working
By Rick Warren
“Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:9 (NLT)
The Bible tells us that there are seasons in life. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (NIV).
The fact that life is made up of seasons means that life also includes times of waiting. Between the “then” and the “now”—or the “now” and the “what’s coming next”—there is always a delay. This irritates most people. It can be frustrating to make a deposit, investment, or plan and not have it instantly come to fruition.
But fruit ripens slowly. Would you rather eat a vine-ripened tomato or one that has been picked green and then gassed to turn it red? There’s no comparison between a vine-ripened tomato, which was allowed to grow slowly, and a tomato that was picked prematurely. If you pick too soon, you miss the flavor.
In money management, you always reap in a different season than you sow. And, by the way, not all fruit ripens at the same time. When you grow peaches, they’re not all ripe at once. They come in little by little; you pick a few a day. When you start planting and following God’s money management principles, you’re not going to get a windfall tomorrow. It’s going to come in over time. You’re going to have to wait to reap in a different season.
But while you’re waiting, God is working. When you’re waiting for the fulfillment of the efforts or money or energy that you’ve put into something, you may think nothing’s happening.
But, oh, it’s happening! While that seed is hidden in the ground, it is slowly germinating. And when that seed bursts with God’s blessing on it, it will continue growing and growing. One day a little shoot will stick up out of the ground, and then you will see that it’s working.
But until then, you need to trust that God is working—even when you can’t see the fruit of your labor.
Plants take time to grow. There’s no such thing as instant maturity. No farmer goes out, plants the seed in the ground, comes back an hour later, digs it up, and expects it to have grown. You’ve just got to let it be, and let God grow it in his time.
Galatians 6:9 says, “Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up” (NLT).
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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