Instant Gratification

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Instant Gratification By David C. McCasland

Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. —Psalm 27:14

When the Polaroid SX-70 camera was introduced in 1972, it revolutionized photography. An article by Owen Edward in Smithsonian magazine described the camera as “a miracle of physics, optics and electronics.” When a photo was snapped, “a blank square would emerge from the front of the camera and develop before our eyes.” People were sold on speedy, immediate results.

Oswald Chambers saw a strong connection between our desire for the immediate and lust: “Lust simply means, ‘I must have this at once’; it may be a bodily appetite or a spiritual possession. . . . I cannot wait for God’s time, God is too indifferent; that is the way lust works.”

In Psalm 27, David wrote of his waiting on God during a time of great trouble when there was no solution in sight. Instead of giving in to despair, he maintained his confidence that he would “see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (v.13).

We live in a world that worships the immediate. When it seems there is no sign of our deepest longings being fulfilled, the psalmist urges us to cling to the eternal God. “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!” (v.14).
Help me, O Lord, to be content! My lips to seal,
To every vain desire, each whim—instead to kneel,
Acknowledging Thee, Lord and King, and in that place
To kneel, to pray, to wait until I see Thy face! —Adams

The answer to our craving for the immediate is to focus on the eternal.