A devotion in Streams in the Desert talks about delayed blessing. The story is told of a man led into the Lord’s treasure-house, where he discovered the Delayed Blessing Office. This is where God stored the answers to certain prayers until it was wise to send them.

The devotion went on to say, “For some who pray expecting an answer, it takes a long time to learn that delays of answers are not denials. These blessings held in the Delayed Blessing Office are deep secrets of love and wisdom we never imagined.”

Do you believe that? Can you accept that delays of answers are not denials?

Have you ever wanted God to bless you in some way without realizing you weren’t ready for that blessing? I have.

It’s like removing a cake from the oven before it is fully cooked. The cake isn’t ready. It’s not done. It’s raw in the middle. Out of our impatience, we didn’t give the cake the required time in the oven to bake. We end up with something far short of what we could have had if we were patient.

God uses time to refine us, to prepare us, to make us ready for those blessings he holds in the Delayed Blessing Office until it’s time to send them our way. I don’t like waiting. I really do not. Yet, when I take the time to actually consider God’s delays this way, I see, despite how I may want things to move at a faster pace, the wait is for a good reason.

God’s delayed blessings are proof of his love, not the opposite. God knows when we’re ready to receive his blessings. He knows how long to keep them in the Delayed Blessing Office before he dispenses them.

After all, none of us want to end up like a cake taken from the oven too soon, do we?

O you of little faith,

God has not failed you yet!

When all looks dark and gloomy,

You do so soon forget–

Forget that He has led you,

And gently cleared your way;

On clouds has poured His sunshine,

And turned your night to day.

And if He’s helped you to this point,

He will not fail you now;

How it must wound His loving heart

To see your anxious brow!

Oh! doubt not any longer,

To Him commit your way,

Whom in the past you trusted,

And is just the same today.

selected–Streams in the Desert

Waiting at the door of the Delayed Blessing Office? Me too. Remember. God will not open that door one second too soon, nor one second too late. And that’s a good thing, right?

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But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day! Habakkuk 2:3 (TLB)

You can find my July Inspire a Fire post here. Please stop by and read it.

I wish you well.

Sandy

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