Chocolate, cream cheese, and vanilla butter cream are a few options to slather onto a freshly baked cake. Icing completes the dessert and makes it more appealing and delicious.

Several weeks ago I wrote about cake baking as a metaphor for waiting on God to work in situations that he has assured us he’ll deal with. When we make a cake, we mix ingredients, put the batter in the oven, and trust the heat will transform batter into cake. We don’t need to keep opening the oven door to see if the cake is baking. While we wait, we trust the oven to do what we cannot and busy ourselves with other things. One is preparing for the cake’s future.

We make icing.

Making icing is an act of faith (though we typically don’t think of it that way) because we believe the cake will be done. Often while we are waiting for God to intervene, it may feel as though we’ll never receive the answers we’re waiting for, even if we believe God is at work. But what if God calls us to demonstrate our belief that he will act on our behalf?

In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus met ten men who had leprosy, and they asked Jesus to heal them. He didn’t heal them on the spot but told them to go show themselves to the priests. Once the lepers started, they were healed. Before they were healed, they had to obey Jesus’ instructions and display faith.

As we wait, it may be worth asking God if he wants us to take a step to show our faith that his answer will come as he promised. We certainly should not act with the intent of manipulating God into doing our bidding in our timing. We must remember the lepers followed Jesus’ instructions. Praying and asking the Lord to show us will help us know if and when it’s time to get started on the icing for the cake.