Will It Be Crockpot or Microwave?

Recently we slow cooked our evening dinner all day in one of those slow cooker things that we call a ‘crockpot’ in the US. When I plugged it in early one morning and put the meat in it, I thought to myself, “How do these things work? It doesn’t seem to be getting hot very fast.”

But it did indeed get hot, and by the time evening came the meat was absolutely done, as tender as can be, and it was delicious! However it took seven or eight hours to cook, something I could have done in about four minutes or so in the microwave.

All of which made me think about my faith walk with Jesus. Just what was, or am, I looking for in my walk… my growth… my faith development… in relationship to my discipleship in the Spirit?

I’ll tell you what I find I’m looking for most of the time: I’m looking for microwave faith, not crockpot faith. I’m looking for me to be delivered, set free, healed, or whatever is uppermost on my need list today, to be dealt with and over with right now! And I want to have communicated to every cell of my body perfect alignment with the will of God in about four minutes time. That seems to me long enough for anybody to suffer.

But… that’s not the way the Spirit works; that’s not the way Abba has it planned; and that’s not the way Jesus lived it out. As that Scripture from Exodus says, if all we get is microwave faith, the wild animals of life will overwhelm us and where we will end up may well be in a new place, but it will be a place of unfruitfulness.

Better to wait upon the Lord, let Him work out His timing, His way, as He sees fit, little by little. Better to trust that no matter how long it takes, the end of time in God’s Crockpot will result in a sweeter, more tender, and more fruitful outcome, that will enable us to live faithfully and courageously in the land God has for us.

Let’s pray: Father, forgive me for the times when I want to rush my way through tough times, hoping just to get out of the fire as quickly as possible. Help me to surrender to Your will, Your way, in Your time, on a day by day basis, so You can drive out the enemy in powerful and fully effective ways, in Jesus’ name, Amen.