By: Denny

If you’re a parent, no doubt you’ve heard this numerous times. One child has a toy and won’t share it with another. They refuse to relinquish it until you intervene and say, “Now let them have their turn.” Sometimes it escalates to the point where the one will just grab it from the other, which usually results in crying and fighting, and you become the referee and break it up. As they get older, it’s not so much about toys as it is other personal items. “How come they get to have ________ and I don’t?” Perhaps it’s over privileges one has and the other doesn’t. “Why do they get to stay up late, and I don’t?” “Why do they get to go, and I don’t?” “All my friends get to do that, why can’t I?” “I never get to do anything!” “How come I have to share a bedroom and they get their own?” Yada, yada, yada, and the complaints and comparisons seem endless. Kids don’t have the ability to reason and understand the concept of waiting and taking turns, because we’re all born with a selfish nature. Growing in age and maturity changes that, or does it? As adults we may not vocalize it, but we have the thought, “When is it my turn?” We see something others have and wonder why or how they can afford it and we can’t. They live in a nice house, and you live in a cramped apartment. They seem to always drive a new car, and you have a fifteen-year-old rusted out money sucking undependable piece of work. They travel the world on lavish vacations, and you can barely afford the gas for traveling back and forth to work each week. They’re already retired at fifty-five and living high on the hog, while it appears that you’ll have to work well into your seventies. You’ve been a good employee, but continually get passed by for a raise, promotion, or recognition. Here’s a big one. All your friends are married and have children. Now you’re thirty-five, your internal clock is ticking, and you still have those desires, but have almost given up that it will ever be “your turn”. Our have-it-now society says don’t wait for it to happen. Take what you want. They have demeaned and reduced marriage and the process of finding the “right one” much like that of ordering off a menu or fast-food drive-up window. Online dating services and TV shows like The Bachelor and Bachelorette are a farse. I watched one episode of Married at First Sight and wanted to puke. What a joke. If you are a Christian don’t be like everyone else and settle for less than God’s best. After my first marriage fell apart, I got my act together and decided to do things God’s way. I prayed and waited for eight years for God to bring the right one for me, and He surely did! During that time, He was preparing us both for each other until it was “our turn”. We will celebrate thirty wonderful years together on May 1^st, with no regrets on having waited or jumped the gun by trying to make it happen on our own.

“When is it my turn?”, is a veil covering the face of covetousness. You shall not covet is the tenth commandment and one of the deadliest of sins because it reveals that you don’t trust God to do for you what He’s done for others. Once you start down that road there are many forks that lead to guilt, depression, discouragement, jealousy, hopelessness, and the big one is anger. All these are a war that rages continually in your mind. James 4: 1-3 (NKJV) puts it very plainly; “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” The last sentence of that verse in The Message Bible says, “You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.” I admit there was a time when I was angry at God because He didn’t do, stop, or allowed things to happen that I thought He could’ve prevented. I wanted it to be my turn, and right now. One thing I’ve learned about God is that He’s bigger than your anger and doesn’t get all bent out of shape like you do. He’s patient and lets you have your little hissy fit. However, don’t set up permanent residency there and allow bitterness to harden your heart. Be honest with God, confess your sin, and ask for His help to overcome anger, understand His timing, and be able to wait for “your turn”.

 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 NKJV  Have you ever waited a long time for something to happen, and began to give up hope and wonder if it ever will? Of course, you have. Hopelessness has a way of convincing us that our turn will never come. You’ve needed a breakthrough in healing either physically, spiritually, or emotionally, and it hasn’t happened yet. You struggle with anxieties, fears, worries, and doubts that seem to hold you captive. You hear about and see the victories others are having in the same areas you struggle with and can’t help thinking, “What’s wrong with me?” We need to resist those thoughts realizing that delay is not denial. A perfect example is recorded in Acts 3: 1-7 as follows: Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. There is much to learn from this passage of scripture. First off, the Beautifull Gate was the main entrance to the temple, and because of that, many who were beggars for various reasons congregated there as their only means of support, relying on the compassion and generosity of those entering. This man being lame all his life, also depended on others to place him there daily. Jesus himself entered the temple many times through that gate. There was always a crowd following Him, after having seen and heard about the miracles he performed. Everyone was talking about how he cast out demons and healed many people. It’s entirely reasonable to believe that this man having heard of all these things may have thought, “What about me Jesus, when is it my turn?” Unfortunately, his present condition made it impossible to even get close to Jesus. Consider how disappointing that was for him, especially after hearing of how Jesus had been crucified.  Now any hope of ever experiencing his miracle was gone and he resolved that his current state of begging for alms would continue for the remainder of his life. One day, as was also their custom, Peter and John were entering the temple to pray. We don’t know if they had noticed this man before, but this day was to be different. The man probably only saw them out of the corner of his eye repeating his usual request in a half-singing voice, “Alms for the poor.” Suddenly, having been prompted by the Holy Spirit, Peter stops and fixes his eyes on the man telling him to look at them. I’m sure this must have been a shock to the man as most people just tossed him a coin and kept right on walking without even a glance. Who would he see? The Peter who denied Jesus, the Peter who started to walk on the water but sank for lack of faith, or who couldn’t stay awake to pray with Jesus in Gethsemane. The one who ran away with the other disciples that night and was not present at the crucifixion. I know, it was the Peter who afterwards basically said, “That was fun while it lasted, but I’m going fishing. Who’s coming with me? No, it was the Peter full of the Holy Spirit. I believe that when Peter took his hand and spoke in the name of Jesus to “rise and walk”, that hopelessness became alive and faith was revived in the man as God proclaimed, “Now, it’s your turn!”

As I mentioned before, we often confuse delay with denial. Consider how easy it may have been for the man at the gate of the temple to accept that. What seems like delay to us is God working behind the scenes in both the natural and spiritual realms to bring glory to himself if we wait patiently and don’t give up hope and faith. Have you also ever considered that He may be preparing you to be His instrument whereby someone else who’s been waiting, sees their turn finally happen.  If you’re willing to be that person, here’s what it’s going to take on your part:

• Consistent intimacy with Jesus   Both quality and quantity time spent in prayer, reading the Bible, and quiet time listening to the Holy Spirit
• Confidence and full awareness of who you are in Christ   It requires forgetting your past failures and believing who He says you are and walking in it
• Become spiritually sensitive   Pray for discernment to recognize the needs of others and for compassion not to pass them by
• Act decisively    Move quickly when the moment presents itself but realize you can’t give what you don’t have. God came to earth as Jesus, with skin on just like us. He ministered in the same power of the Holy Spirit that He promised would be available to us.

 Someone out there is asking, “When is it my turn?”  What will your answer be if God directs you to them?