While cooking….

I decided to make two different pancake batters: one buttermilk and one pumpkin.

I love pumpkin pancakes with chocolate chips and the men in my house love old faithful…fluffy buttermilk pancakes. However, Joshua likes chocolate chips in his while Michael and Joseph do not. Sooooo… being that person that wants to make everybody happy (that’s another sermon), I meet everyone’s needs which takes a little bit more time. Since I am the only one eating the pumpkin batter I add chocolate chips before cooking. Since Joshua is the only one eating chocolate chips in his pancakes, I add them to each individual pancake while cooking the buttermilk batter. I know there are more efficient ways, but hey, I now see why I do that…To teach a lesson! 😬

Side by side, someone may be tempted to think, “she must not have enough chocolate chips for the buttermilk batter.”

While that could be true, it was not for this case. Simply, it just was not time…yet.

Have you ever compared your life to someone else’s wondering why they have “chocolate chips in their batter” and you don’t? I have and it has done so much harm to my thought life. I have asked questions like, “Why them and not me?” OR “Why me and not them?” OR “Am I not good enough?” OR “What resources did they have or get that I don’t have?”

It sends me and my thoughts spiraling downward!!

When I have had those questions, the answer has almost always been…it’s simply not time yet.

Wow!!! Not time yet. It’s not the lie that I am not enough, it is plainly not time yet.

With this newfound truth, I must have patience and GRACE for myself. I must keep myself focused on my own race. I must remember that just because someone else is getting their “chocolate chips” now or before me doesn’t mean there is not enough for me. My God owns everything! To believe He doesn’t have enough for me places limits and constraints on a limitless and unconstrained God. And to think that He doesn’t have enough for me or nothing at all contradicts the fact that I am his child.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are…”

1 John 3:1 ESV

And what good parent does not give their children good things? If we give good things to our kids when they ask and if we are able to discern when to give them what they ask for, then doesn’t our Heavenly Father do so even better? As Luke 11:9-13 ESV says

“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!””

God is able to do EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL we can ask or think. Ephesians 3:20

So it’s just not time yet. And we are enough. As Daryl Coley says, He is preparing us and getting us ready! And as we learn from Sarah and Abraham, it is dangerous to go ahead of God and do our own thing. There are long lasting consequences. See Genesis chapters 16 -21.

I just wanted to encourage us all to not mistake not yet for not enough. And to wait patiently like my son Joshua does. He sees the differences in the batter, but he knows his mama has some set aside for him. He watches as she meticulously places them on the batter to ensure he chocolatey goodness in every bite. And she does it at least five times because this young man can EAT!!! He waits EXPECTANTLY and walks away with confidence…Knowing his “chocolate chips” are coming!

So wait expectantly and confidently instead of looking at others.

Getting us to look at what others are accomplishing is one of the tactics of the enemy. He wants us to think we are not good enough, we are running out of time, and that there is not going to be enough!

ALL OF WHICH ARE LIES.

You are enough.

God has not forgotten about you.

God is not shortchanging you.

He is simply saying not yet. I have chocolate chips for you also; I just put them in at a different time.

In the end, everyone got their chocolate chips. It didn’t matter when they were put in.

And also, those who didn’t want chocolate chips, got their pancakes also. God specializes in customizing your blessing!!

So….

Don’t worry!

Don’t compare!

Don’t get discouraged!

Your chocolate chips are coming!

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 1:6 ESV