What speed does God operate on?

In my experience God operates on one speed… His Timing. I haven’t quite figured out how to speed Him up or slow Him down. I guess that’s why He’s God and I’m not. Sometimes He’s seemingly predictable and He’ll respond the moment a prayer leaves my mouth, and other times I’m left wondering, “what’s taking so long?”  Maybe you’ve been there too? You throw up a prayer like a proverbial quarter in a cosmic gumball machine in the sky. You expect for an answer to pop out, and sometimes it works and you even get the color you wanted. Other times the “Machine” seemingly eats your quarter. I’m guessing that part of the problem lies in us treating God like a “cosmic gum ball machine” in the first place.

I have found that in general God moves in seasons, processes, and suddenlies (I wish I had 3 “s” words because then this would really preach). Sometimes God just carries us through natural seasons of our life. Life ebbs and flows and we look back and see the fingerprints of God all over it. Eventually one season ends and another begins. These “divine” seasons sometimes come and go as quickly as the natural seasons of Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring and other times they’re much longer or much shorter. One thing is for sure… a season by its very nature will end so that another may start.

Processes can be similar to seasons or at least be a part of seasons, but usually when God “takes you through a process” it is really intentional. The primary purposes of “the process” is character development, and learning things you would never learn outside of a God ordained process. It’s usually during “the process” that we wish He would just snap His fingers and “fix it”.

My personal favorite (and I’m sure yours as well) is the “suddenlies of God”. This is where He skips the processes, and the seasons and breaks into our situations with an instant miracle. I love that! I contend for it! I even believe that His heart longs to give us the suddenlies. He’s the one that gave us the model for prayer that says, “…Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven…” His ultimate desire is for Heaven to invade earth and invade our church, and invade our families, and invade every pressing situation in our lives. Last winter, here in Kearney, there was a perfect picture of this when right in the middle of the “season of winter” we experienced a “suddenly of spring”.  (Now if only we could skip winter all together).

In all of this I think it’s important for us to remember to simply trust God in the midst of our situation. I’ve never known Him to respond well to demands, or manipulation, or anything else like that. Rather the Bible says “a broken and contrite heart He has yet to deny” the Bible also says, “And without Faith it is impossible to please Him”. The bottom line is that the speed God operates on, the one I mentioned earlier… His Timing… Is Perfect.