God’s clocks keep perfect time.
Patience
Waiting is a difficult thing to practice. We live in a culture of immediacy. Apparently the most used button in a lift – the one which is most likely to be rubbed smooth – is the ‘close door’ button. (Check it out next time you’re in one.) I am one of those cynics who are inclined to believe the rumour that most such lift buttons are not actually wired in – they are just there as a stress reliever so that we feel like we are doing something to speed things up. – Krish Kandiah
Krish Kandiah, 2014, Paradoxology, London: Hodder & Stoughton, p.151
In the waiting room of life, you can choose to trust God instead of panicking. You also need to remember two things: One, God is never in a hurry. And two, God is never late. God’s timing is always perfect. What happens in those times where it appears that God is late? God is getting you ready for a miracle! There are so many examples of this in Scripture, including the story of Lazarus (John 11). Mary and Martha had a brother named Lazarus, who was one of Jesus’ best friends. They lived in Bethany, which was just a few miles from where Jesus was on the day Lazarus got sick. They sent word to Jesus that his friend was gravely ill and asked him to come to them. He could have easily been in Bethany in an hour or two. But it took Jesus three days to go about five miles. When he got there, they told him, “You’re too late! We’ve already buried Lazarus.” Jesus wasn’t late. Because Jesus already knew what he was going to do. His goal was not to heal Lazarus. His goal was to raise him from the dead. Jesus’ goal was not to just make Lazarus well. His goal was to do a miracle of astronomical proportions. Jesus walked up to Lazarus’ tomb, told them to roll the stone away, and said, “Lazarus, come forth.” And Lazarus did! Sometimes God lets a situation get so bad that only a miracle will do. Don’t give up your faith. Hold on. Keep praying and serving and going to small group. Keep sowing. Keep believing. Because you’re getting ready for a miracle. God already knows what he’s going to do in your life next month, next year, and in the next decade, and his plan for you is good.
Rick Warren
Source: Daily Hope with Rick Warren, 30/12/2017
One of England’s finest preachers decided because of his wife’s failing health not to go to America and speak at an important conference. Although he’d purchased his ticket, the ship sailed without him, and J. Stuart Holden missed a golden opportunity in the prime of his preaching career. A devoted husband, he gave himself to caring for his wife and tried not think of what he was missing on the other side of the Atlantic. The truth is we’re too easily disappointed when our plans fall through; too easily discouraged when ‘great career opportunities’ are missed, and our complaining proves that we don’t know God like we say we do. Delay is often the protective hand of our heavenly Father. It certainly was for Holden, who resolved never again to question God’s timing. Why? Because the unused ticket he held reserved his passage on the new ‘unsinkable’ luxury liner – RMS Titanic.
Source: The UCB Word For Today, 9/7/2016
Patience: Did you know that you will spend six months of your life sitting at red lights waiting for them to turn green? And have you noticed that when the light turns green, if you don’t move in two seconds, the guy behind you turns red? Isn’t it interesting how we admire patience in the driver who is behind us but not in the one ahead of us? – Rick Warren
Rick Warren, God’s Power To Change Your Life, 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, p.105
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him.
Psalm 37: 4-7 NIV1984 Edition
“To know how to wait is the great secret of success.”
Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821)
God’s delays are not God’s denials.
“Patience and fortitude conquer all.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), American poet and essayist
Trust in God’s timing. There is not one instance in the whole of scripture where He was ever late!
“‘Wait on the Lord’ is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come.”
J. I. Packer
J.I. Packer, Knowing God, (1993 edition), London: Hodder and Stoughton, p.271
God always answers every prayer:
If the request isn’t right, His answer is no.
If the timing isn’t right, His answer is slow.
If you aren’t right, His answer is grow.
And when everything is ready and right, His answer is go!
If your every human plan and calculation has miscarried, if, one by one, human props have been knocked out, and doors have shut in your face, take heart. God is trying to get a message through to you, and the message is: “Stop depending on inadequate human resources. Let me handle the matter.” – There is much in Scripture stressing our need to have faith in God; it not only admonishes us to trust, it promises that when we do, God will act in a supernatural way to answer our need. Dwell on that for a moment. We trust; God acts.
Catherine Marshall
When the light turns green and the car in front of you doesn’t go, do you give them a little “love tap” on the horn? – Patience is something you understand from the driver behind you but not from the driver in front of you.
“Patience is not the ability to wait; it is the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”
Joyce Meyer
“We don’t wait well. We’re into microwaving; God, on the other hand, He is usually into marinating.”
Dutch Sheets
Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer , p.17
“Appreciate the patience of God. Think how he has borne with you, and still bears with you, when so much in your life is unworthy of him, and you have so richly deserved his rejection. Learn to marvel at his patience, and seek grace to imitate it in your own dealings with others; and try not to try his patience anymore.”
J. I. Packer, theologian, lecturer and author
“Patience is a bitter plant that produces sweet fruit.”
Charles Swindoll
A five year-old boy, Harry, began his first day at school. For some time leading up to the event, his parents had been building him up and preparing him for the big day when he would finally be allowed to go to school and learn how to read and write. Harry was eager and excited. He couldn’t wait to get started and he was happy to be left alone. When his mother finally arrived at 3pm to collect him she asked Harry how he had got on. Harry looked disappointed and replied, “It was useless, mum! A complete waste of time.” Harry’s mother was alarmed. “But you were so looking forward to it, whatever happened?” she asked. “Nothing!” said Harry. “That’s just it. I came to school and stayed all day and I still can’t read or write!”
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:9 NIV
The psalmist wrote: “I trust in you, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my God. My times are in your hands’ (Psalm 31:14-15). As you walk with God you’ll find that you spend more time waiting than you do receiving. And when you do receive what you are waiting for, you’ll then begin waiting for something else! So we need to learn to wait with joy otherwise we will live with diminished expectations and frustration. (…) God has set a time for accomplishing things in your life and that’s when it will happen, not before. God knows what you need, when you need it, and how to get it to you. You might ask, ‘What am I supposed to do while I’m waiting?’ Trust him… say with the psalmist. ‘You are my God. My times are in your hands.’ Learn to enjoy the journey; enjoy where you are, while you are waiting to get where you want to be.
Source: The UCB Word For Today
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
Psalm 27:14 NIV
Oswald Chambers wrote: “Patience is more than endurance. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says – ‘I cannot stand anymore.’ – God does not heed. He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight… then He lets fly. – Trust yourself in God’s hands. For what have you need of patience just now? Maintain your relationship to Jesus Christ by the patience of faith. Job wrote: “Though He slay me, yet will I wait for Him.” (Job 13:15.)… You cannot see Him just now, you cannot understand what He is doing, but you know Him… Faith is the heroic effort of your life; fling yourself in reckless confidence on God.”
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, (2000 edition), Worcester: Oswald Chambers Publications, p.135
It’s said that one of the shortest periods of time… is that time between when the lights turn green and the sound of the first horn behind you! Friend, choose to be a road ranger and not a road rager.
God’s plans and God’s timing are perfect. Who am I, then, to tamper with a masterpiece? – Anon
“Delay is part of the multiplication process. It takes time to get everything lined up, but when that occurs, you had better watch out because things are about to erupt!”
Paul J. Meyer
A few years ago, when archaeologists began excavating in the courtyard of a medieval monastery, they found seeds that had been dormant for more than 400 years that had begun to grow. King Henry VIII had closed the monastery in 1539, and herbs tended by the monks died. But they sprouted to life again after the archaeologists disturbed the earth.
There is no such a thing as instant maturity… so stop wishing for it!
When Corrie Ten Boom was a young girl she asked her father a difficult question. Her father tried to answer her but it became apparent that she was simply too young to understand. After several failed attempts he asked her to fetch his toolbox that was lying on the floor nearby. She struggled to lift it because it was just too heavy for her.
“Likewise,” said her father, “the subject you are asking me about now is too heavy for you to grasp! When you are older the toolbox will be easy to carry and the answer to your question will be easy to understand.”
For nothing is impossible with God.
Luke 1:37 NIV1984 Edition
This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favour I will answer you.”
Isaiah 49:8 NIVUK
Sometimes the best course of action is to let the world take a turn.
“Everything comes if a man will only wait.”
Tancred (? – 1112), Norman hero of the First Crusade, who captured Jerusalem in 1099