Your “Suddenly” Moment

Pastor Jim provides advice on learning to appreciate and embrace the “suddenly” moments with God.

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What Are You Waiting For?

Much of life is waiting for something to happen. Minutes turn into hours, hours into days, days into months, and months into years. Waiting too often becomes more about the clock seeming to stand still. Where is that moment when it turns and what you have been waiting for “suddenly” arrives?

You are far from being alone in this waiting for that moment. It has been a condition that has accompanied mankind since the beginning of time:

• Abraham was a very old man before his “suddenly” arrived in both a son and a promised land.
• Moses had raised a family and was content to stay hidden in the desert when God “suddenly” called him to the greatest of adventures.
• Elizabeth and Zacharias the Bible says were well stricken in years and she was barren when “suddenly” an angel appeared and announced that they would have a son – John the Baptist

God has been in the suddenly business for eons.

So, Where Is My Suddenly Moment?

At this moment you are likely saying “Okay, I am ready for my suddenly moment!” I know that you are but there is the “rest of the story” about suddenly moments that serve as the foundation for this to happen. Are you struggling with God?

God can do anything, anytime, anywhere. There are no limitations to God.

However, it appears that he chooses to not play magician and grant us three wishes each day, month, or year. The common thread in each of the Biblical examples above is that the “suddenly moment” came after years of preparation through disappointments and trials. In fact, I suggest that the degree of significance is in proportion to the preparation time for their moment.

Another way of saying it is that in order to experience supernatural moments we must place ourselves into the test tube of human experience with God for extended periods of time.

I know this principle all too well. For the past 15 years I have experienced tremendous financial hardships. This period was launched from my own choices and I certainly set into motion the elements of this hardship. Try as I may, I could not dig myself out of the hole. I did not starve (thanks to peanut butter and tuna for brief periods) but I did suffer a great deal of stress. I have cried out to God on numerous occasions for his help and blessing. I always felt his presence. There were times when it seemed that I was getting on a good track to reconciliation, but then the economy or circumstances would change and I would be set adrift again. It has been a disgusting, frustrating, and embarrassing experience.

When Your Moment Arrives

Several months ago I attempted to rectify a major hurdle in this financial dilemma. I tried one approach in desiring to settle a debt with a compromise. The compromise was rejected and it became very clear that I was to pay my indebtedness in full. Then it happened. Suddenly things changed in my life and I was able to have the means to pay off not only this debt, but all my debts!

I had prayed, and prayed, and prayed to God to help the compromise to be accepted. I REALLY wanted this to be the approach. Yet, out of what I knew to be true, I also prayed that God’s will would be done and that he would make the way and means clear. When the rejected compromise was received it was like a huge weight being lifted from me. I knew in my spirit that God was telling me the compromise was not the way that he wanted for me to handle this matter. Suddenly he opened new ways for me to have the funds to clear this from my name and from my spirit. His timing and will were much better than mine.

This is shared in the context of praying that God will open your eyes to move toward your “suddenly” moment or period of time. You have been going on, and on, and on for years perhaps shaping how you wanted God to answer your prayers.

I do believe that God wants us to make specific requests for many of the areas of our lives. However, the significant moments I suggest can only be defined and shaped by him.

The shape, size, color, and features of your destination may not be in the package that you have been describing to God, or to yourself. I wonder if you and I have spent so much time in such exercises that we have MISSED the “suddenly” moments in God’s blessings because he, she, or it did not fit into our formula? There is something to really ponder!

Allowing God To Set The Timeline

I am seeing that the desires of our hearts are more about shaping us to appreciate and embrace the “suddenly” moments with God than about fulfilling personal desires.

The principle to be shared is that you and I must spend each and every moment relating with God to weave the basket and awareness that over extended time will prepare us to see and experience the fullness of the “suddenly” moments God wants to share. It cannot be rushed and each heartache and longing is but another thread for the abundance he wants to share when the basket is ready.

The Shortest Distance.

Count every sorrow, every joy, every longing, every heartache as a precious gift that God is allowing to come your way to prepare you for an awesome time when he will receive the fullness of the glory he created you for, and for the joy he passionately wants to share with you.

He does have a “suddenly” for you! The question is whether or not you will be ready to see and experience it.

Pastor Jim

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