The Thursday Update

AUGUST 14, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

With every year that passes, we’ve become more of what I call an “instant” world. It seems like everything we desire must be delivered right away.

Think about all the things you use each day that are instant. You wake up to instant coffee, heat your breakfast in the microwave in an instant, and get instant news on anything using your laptop or phone. You can talk to anyone for free—instantly—on that very same phone. You can order almost anything and have it delivered in a day, and sometimes it can be stolen off your front porch just as instantly. You can pay your bills online in an instant. You can also rack up really large credit card charges, too—in an instant. So much of our lives are conditioned to focus on finding “the instant” solution to whatever we can, even when it’s not the best or right solution.

In many ways, instant can be a good thing. It creates convenience and helps ease the demands that can wear us out. But in other ways, it can erode our patience for the good things in life that require time. Things like dating, friendships, family life, and our walk with God are never instant. They take time because “time” does what “instant” cannot do—build perseverance, character, and strength. That’s why we need to develop the virtue that runs counter to instant gratification.

It’s called delayed gratification.

The Bible talks about this over and over again. If we can delay our gratification in life, we’ll often find the results more satisfying. That’s what we’ll be looking at in our current series on Proverbs this Sunday.

Are you ok when God delays His blessings in your life? Are you ok when you have to wait on Him while He builds your character during seasons of delay? Do you believe that in many areas of life “good things do come to those who wait”? The more you can answer yes, the more you’ve discovered the power of delayed gratification.

Warmly,
Vince