Tick tock, tick tock, your life clock is ticking down....so depressing, right? Well it's all in how you look at it. I got the following devotional today and had to share some parts of it with all you singles out there. Why? Because often, as singles, time is seen as the enemy. You place time limitations on your dating lives and freak out when you haven't found the One, or the person hasn't made your relationship 'official', or you haven't gotten the ring. But time is not the enemy. It takes time to build a relationship (and sometimes we rush it and have disastrous results), it takes time to mature and grow and know yourself well enough to know what kind of guy or girl you should (or shouldn't be) dating, it takes time to heal from past hurts and wounds, it takes time to move past a broken heart, it takes time to get rid of bad habits that may be keeping you from being successful in any relationship. And as you read this devo, I think you'll agree, that we want it our way, right away, forgetting that God isn't Burger King and we can't just send up a drive-through prayer and expect immediate results. There's much to be learned in whatever time God is giving you during this time of singleness...take the time to find out what it is! It will yield Long Term Rewards!
“Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and also we will possess with Christ what God has kept for him! For if we share Christ’s suffering, we will also share his glory! I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:17-18
A Harvard study found that the more long-term your thinking is, the more successful you will be in life. And the more short-term your thinking is, the less successful you will be.
Unsuccessful people only think about the here and now – what feels good now, what is nice now, and what gives results now.
But if you think in the long-term, you will have greater success, because you are willing to put up with short-term pain to gain long-term benefits.
The reason America is in the financial mess it’s in right now is because of our inability to delay gratification. We don’t know how to say no. We say, “I want it and I want it now, even if I have to charge it and can’t pay for it,” and the debt has caught up with us. That’s what little kids do. They don’t know the difference between “no” and “not yet.” They have to have it now.
If you want God’s blessing on your life, you must focus on the long-term, not the short-term. You can’t allow hopelessness that comes from short-term thinking to take hold in your heart or you will get discouraged and give up too soon.
If you are feeling hopeless because of current struggles you are experiencing, keep in mind the words of the Apostle Paul:
“[W]hat we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:17).
My hope for each single reading this is that they will focus more on the long-term than the short-term; that they will choose not to settle for what is wrong while hoping it will become right (that RARELY if ever happens), that their focus would be upwards (God) and inwards (self-reflection) rather than outwards (distractions, wrong relationships, time wasters). My hope is that your hopes of love will be realized....in God's perfect time, because that will make that love simply PERFECT.
