For many of us the greatest test of our faith is found in the area of our ability or inability to wait on God’s timing. Delays are rarely seen to be a friend to us, whether it is while we are staring at endless sets of brake lights as we sit behind a long line of cars on the interstate or something more significant like the arrival of a long-awaited baby or perhaps the weeks between today and that vacation we desperately need. We don’t like to wait on the people around us to change so that our relationships become less strained. Who enjoys those days after medical tests when the physician’s assistant tells us that we will be notified by phone in a few days with the results of our bloodwork? Then there is that oft-experienced occasion for the Christian when we have prayed too many times to count and the answer still has not arrived. Sometimes we are tempted to assume that our delays are actually denials.
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in His word I hope.”
-Psalm 130:5 {ESV}
It may sound a little cold or fatalistic but we should acknowledge that the bottom line for us is that we don’t have much say-so when it comes to the timing of events in our lives. Part of the reality that God is sovereign (which also means that you and I are not) is that He turns the pages of our calendars, He fills the ticking of the hands on our watches and He orders everything around us to suit His perfect plan. We do not enjoy being reminded of this but it serves us well to hear again that we are not the ones who are in control. There is something above you and beyond you that is in the governor’s seat. God’s plan certainly and graciously includes you but it does not revolve around you. Because of this, He does not ask your permission about how He intends to unfold things that affect you. Be careful not to have a knee-jerk reaction to statements like I am making so that you do not end up smoldering in your heart as you relegate God to some unfeeling, capricious deity. Here is the one main necessary ingredient that needs to flavor all that we ponder when God is not moving at a speed or in a direction that we would like:
A solid confidence in the goodness of His character.
Because He is good and true and holy and loving and powerful and wise…He has never made a mistake in His dealings with you. Issues arise when we hastily assume that our lives should always have a certain bend to them and that God is obligated to buff and polish the curve in that bend so that it remains pleasantly shiny for us. We assume that our plan is best and that He is somehow obligated to endorse it and facilitate it. We forget that we are flawed by our sin. We forget that we often experienced deep regret for our foolish decisions. We have misspoken, miscalculated and been mistaken more times than we care to remember. Yet God has never uttered the word Oops! because He has never erred. As He is today working out His plan for you He is not anxious about the outcome. His current delays, interruptions and re-routing of your intended “travel schedule” here below only appear as something other than beneficial because we forget that He knows what He is doing. We protest, “But things were not supposed to be this way…” My response is then, “What is your loving, caring and sacrificial God saying when you tell Him that disapprove of His leadership in your life?” One might think that God would be offended and practice some tough-love by bluntly instructing us to stop whining and suck it up.
I think, rather, He welcomes us into His arms to tell Him all about our discouragement and fears and the reluctance we feel as He leads us onward or calls us to patiently tarry. Then, somehow, He communicates to us that, as we continue to wait on Him and remain hopeful in His wise plan, we will eventually come back a little later with two words coming forth from our tearless face…“Thank you.” It will be then that our understanding will merge with what He has done and is doing. It will be at that moment that we will find a deeper treasure than we would have discovered had we gotten our own way before being made to wait. Many centuries ago the Psalmist penned the words which follow. Take him at his word.
“I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.” – Psalm 52:9 {ESV}
“He has never made a mistake in his dealings with you.”
I sure needed this statement today; more than a statement….it is fact.
Two things eat at me..one is physical pain, the other is a fearful and vindictive friend.
I tend to deal with illness well…until it results in physical pain. Cancer didn’t scare me because it was caught early and I never “felt” its effect. A herniated disc or kidney trouble is a whole other story.
Fearful friends don’t bother me when they’re all timid and shivering, but let one of them, out of their fear, cause trouble for me and I’m praying like a gun is being held to my head.
I might guess that God knows these two things drive me to Him like nothing else. Perhaps that is why He allows them in my life.
This reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ writing of Aslan (paraphrased) ….”is he safe? No but he is good.”