Don’t Delay
When I believe I’m hearing from God, I try to move with immediacy. If it’s a nudge to pick up my bible or reach out to a certain person, I do it as soon as I can. I’m not perfect in this area but I’ve consistently found when I move in obedience blessings are attached. That blessing may be encouragement for someone else and I count their joy as my blessing too. I have a couple recent examples:
Someone text me a link to a lengthy article and I didn’t read it right away. I opened the text and thought, “I’ll circle back to this maybe…” The day we are able to mark text as “unread” will be a beautiful day! I knew the person who sent the message was coming from a good place and I definitely wanted to provide my thoughts on the Christian article they shared. Once I did read the article a few hours later, there was a portion that I really resonated with. It mentioned how the devil will tempt us when we are most vulnerable aka H.A.L.T (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired). I usually try to read a few passages of scripture every night. When I finished the article it was pretty late and it did have scripture in it, so I thought, I’ll pick up my bible another day. But then I got a nudge to continue with my nightly routine. What was the next passage for me to read that night as I continued in the book of Matthew?
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4: 1-4)
I couldn't believe it, it felt like such a reminder from God that He is in the details. I could feel His presence in the clarity and reassurance in that moment.
In another instance, I drug my feet but God was gracious enough to allow things to work in my favor. Last summer I started a new job and as I was leaving my previous employer, I was sent some outstanding tasks from the HR person. One item was filling out a form to facilitate the rollover of my 401K to my new company. A few weeks into my new job, I filled out the paperwork and emailed the HR person. Some time passed and I didn’t hear anything.
When I followed up, she got back to me and said she was working on it. Some more time passed and the conversation stalled. I followed up again and cc’d my former boss and the head of the company. This action did quickly get me a response from the HR person, at least initially. Months began to drag on and it appeared no resolution was in sight. I finally decided that I would remove the middle person and see what the holders of my 401k needed in order for my funds to be moved. I found out I needed my former job to change my name in the portal as my name had changed after I got married. Once I found this out, I was frustrated that I had to reach out to the HR person again and wondered when I would do it. It was now 6 months since I left the job and the 401K funds had not been moved. By this point, I knew I didn't want to carry this problem into a new month so I moved with resolve to get the problem solved ASAP. I contacted the HR person on a Wednesday and she informed me her last day with the company was that Friday and she would have the new person do the change. Frustration began to set in. I couldn't let this drag out any further. I pressed her to make the change as it would only take a few minutes. To my surprise, she completed the task and even sent me a screenshot of her work. I was so thankful to God that this issue had moved to resolution. I thought to myself, if I delayed my reach out to her even two more days I would not be sighing relief but kicking myself as she would no longer be working at the company and my transfer process would have been further delayed.
Those two instances reminded me that we shouldn't take our time for granted; our pausing could cause us to miss out on a moment to hear from God or even cause us more work than was initially needed for an endeavor.
