Our culture has become so obsessed with instant gratification and three-step formulas to solve any problem. 

With the technology available to us today, we are able to find answers to just about anything in a matter of seconds. Or, we can find a formula that will lead to answers or success if only you “follow these three steps.”

We have become so conditioned to be able to have what we want when we want it, and waiting is nearly unheard of in our culture today.

Waiting is a discipline that so many of us lack. Just look at the amount of consumer debt in our country! People are impatient.

I know this mentality has leaked into my prayer life and into my expectations of God, as hard as I try to fight it.

As I pray about Tori and her healing, my thoughts often wander to wondering if there are steps I am not following…as if there are magic words that would instantly make everything better. Obviously, that is not biblical and I know that. But it happens. 

I watch her regress and I observe her pain, and my mind desperately seeks the secret code, the perfect combination of words that God is waiting to hear. And I want Him to heal her NOW, not later.

But our God isn’t like that. Our God created time and He doesn’t operate within our concept of it. The Bible tells us this:

But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. (2 Peter 3:8)

For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours. (‭Psalm ‭90‬:‭4)

So, even though I want her to be healed NOW, I must trust the timing of the One who created time. The same God who created everything we see is the same one holding Tori in His hand and He knows her future. 

He isn’t a God of formulas or magic spells. His Word tells us that we are saved by FAITH through God’s infinite grace, and not by works (Ephesians 2:8). When Jesus healed in the Bible it was because the sick believed in Him and that He could do it. They had faith.

Jesus didn’t heal everyone instantly in the Bible – there are a few situations where He waited so that His power could be displayed in greater ways. Lazarus. The Centurion’s daughter. His own resurrection. The wait was always worth it.

And it is that same God to whom we entrust Tori. Whether her healing will happen here or in Heaven, we know that His timing and method are perfect, no matter how hard the time of waiting may be. 

We will pray, and we will patiently wait for Him to move.