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Remember the old photo booths they used to have in the discount stores? Remember how they work? You pop in the tiny booth, pull the curtain shut, and adjust the swivel stool to just the right height so that when you sit down your face reflects on the little screen about two feet in front of you. You push your coins into the slot, and then quickly sit up straight and smile.

SNAP! Change positions quickly and SNAP! Change once more and another SNAP! You move rapidly to a new pose and hear the final SNAP! Four poses and four pictures. Then comes the hard part. You step out of the booth to wait for that little strip of pictures to drop through the slot and into the wire pocket on the side of the booth.

Taking the photos is fun, but waiting those few minutes for the developing is so hard! It seems to take forever, but sooner or later you know the pictures will come through.

Sometimes when things seem to be moving ahead rapidly in my life and God is obviously working, I hear His still small voice saying, “Wait!” I’m ready to move on to the next project or plan and God says, No, not now. That isn’t what I want to hear! I fear that if I wait, the thing will be forgotten. I worry that putting it off will only allow some obstacle will keep it from happening, and I won’t get what I want . . . or by the time I get it, I won’t want it.

Throughout my life I learned some hard lessons that in those times when God chooses to not answer my prayers right away in my own timing, I need to take the focus off of my agenda and simply focus on Him. This is when I know that He loves and cares for me and I trust that He will care for me in His timing as He knows what is best.

God always has been and always will be faithful. Because I serve a faithful God I know that He will work all things for good in His own timing. I can trust that He will provide for my needs, and He knows better than me how that should all take place.

Father, when I’m inpatient and having a hard time waiting on you, please help me to realize that you are faithful and that you are completely in control.

Ann Shorb is a counselor and the founder of CCES. She works with a wide variety of clients and provides Biblical counseling services for many different issues.