“When they came to Jericho. And later, as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a beggar who was blind named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. And when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the man who was blind, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.”And throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. And replying to him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the man who was blind said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!”And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.” (Mark 10:46-52 NASB)
At times we turn to the Lord in prayer desiring that the Lord will act on our behalf immediately, instantly, and incredibly without delay. No doubt here! He can do it if He so chooses! Right!
You know how we are! We want out circumstance changed for the better, immediately. We want our crisis to cease, immediately. We want our condition to be canceled, immediately. We want the chaos to come to a halt, immediately. We want our crying nights to be replaced by the cry of joy, immediately. I’m right about it, and you know it.
Well, I don’t want you to think that the Lord is not acting immediately to your petition at times when it does not happen instantly. (Read that sentence again!)
I know you realize that the Lord has prerogatives like no other: special authority, special power, special privilege and special rights. He can do what He wants when He wants because He is sovereign. You know all that but let me give you a deeper and different perspective of “immediately” so that you will lose faith.
Understand that the Lord knows best and sometimes His “immediately” is different than ours. Hear me out! He will hear your prayer, and it is true, He answers prayer. But the time period at times, speaking of “immediately,” it happens when He does not bring you instantly out of the condition, but instead He give you the strength to go through your condition and enables you to demonstrate your faith and trust in God for the sake of the kingdom. Keep reading! At times “immediately” entails or involves the Lord orchestrating some other happenings, bringing about some change or changes, so that the change you desire will be realized. Oh, no doubt, we want to be like the man in the passage above and experience a miracle right away, immediately, but again, at times the Lord’s acting “immediately” may come over time because He wants you to understand that while He may not come when you want Him too, He will come, and as we say, when He does come, it will be right on time. Consequently, your faith, once again, will be strengthened or prepared to handle the next time you face the same type of condition, crisis, or circumstance.
I was almost done but wait! There is one more example. Sometimes the answer is “immediately” favorable, and the Lord has plans to help you, but before He does, He will show you something, some aspect, some behavior, some habit, that you have to fix before He fixes things for you. You do remember Daniel being promised something immediately, but it was 10 years before the promise was manifested.
Sometime, the Lord has immediately made up His mind to help, but there is some transformation on our part that has to occur first. I hope I am helping you!
My friend, don’t lose faith when your understanding of “immediate” does not match with God’s “immediate.” Finally, keep in mind that our timing is not like His timing. Praise the Lord, for He is on your side! Hold on, friend! Your change is coming! Be blessed!
“Don’t let it escape your notice, dear friends, that with the Lord a single day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a single day. (2 Peter 3:8 Common English Bible)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King