Our society is one of instant gratification. I get impatient when my meals take over a minute to cook in the microwave. Thirty second commercials are much too long, causing most people to flip channels to avoid a couple of minutes of possible boredom. Credit cards allow us to buy things right now without having earned the money yet. We need to lose more than five pounds a week in a diet in order to do it. Basically, we want everything we want, and we want it right now.

It is easy to see how this can be in direct contrast to what God demands of us. God calls on us to put away immediate gratification. For example, God created with many desires, and has given us a righteous way to fulfill those desires. However, we do not always want to wait for God’s way. We like to circumvent the process and fulfill our desires in the quickest way possible In doing so, we find ourselves sinning against God. On top of that, our reward is not in the present. There are advantages to serving God, but our ultimate reward is not in this life but in the next. The problem is that since serving God gives a delayed gratification, and fulfilling our desires in unrighteous ways gives us an immediate gratification.

Like the farmer, we need to show patience and wait for the greater reward. Whatever we may gain in instant gratification is nothing compared to the glory awaiting for us in Heaven. Like the farmer who gets food after a hard year of work, or the athlete who wins a championship after years of physical training, we must be diligent to work with the end in mind. We must let go of our laziness and selfishness, and work hard now, knowing the result will be worth all of the sacrifices we may have to make.