Waiting Can Be Tough

I can’t think of anything that is not affected by timing. It’s often not predictable or obvious, but still so important. Years ago a friend was helping to build a house… he had paused for a moment to catch his breath and stepped away just as a beam came crashing down right where he had been standing… it would have seriously injured him or worse if he hadn’t moved a few seconds earlier….. timing. Think of how even a few seconds can make a difference…. arriving at a place where you “accidently” meet someone who would one day became your spouse…. a few seconds later and you may have never met. The examples are constantly before us.

While timing is important in the earthly realm, think about the spiritual realm. In prayer, timing is critical. The gap between the heartfelt request to God and his answer is bound up in “timing”. It seems rare that a prayer request is instantly answered, or that we instantly see the answer. Perhaps the Lord says yes at the moment of the prayer request, but you don’t see it. Think of asking someone to loan you $1,000…. he says yes, but it may be a few days until you actually receive the dough. Peter reminds us: “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness ….”. (2Peter 3:8-9)

But what happens during this gap between the request and the answer. That can be the hardest time for a Christian as he waits for the answer… did God hear my prayer, did I say it right, is it really his will, does God really care, what’s going on….. In God we know that his timing is perfect, but it’s still not easy. And then it can get complicated as God may answer the prayer in a different way then we asked. It seems we ask for one thing and he answers 5 other things. It can get complex. There’s also the “fullness of time” for answered prayer… Jesus was born in the “fullness of time”…. it took quite a while until all was ready.

The coming of our savior was prophesied thousands of years before the time was right for the birth of Jesus. The Israelites prayed for years and years to be freed from slavery before Moses showed up on the scene and led them out of Egypt. The 11^th chapter of the book of Hebrews recounts the great faith of our ancestors in the Old Testament, yet it ends with “ and all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. (Heb. 11:39-40) 

Faith and trust are so important to our relationship with the Lord. They enable us to not lose hope during the gap between “our ask and God’s answer”. 

I had a very dear friend who prayed for years that his children would return to the faith. He loved a good beer, but for some 25 years he gave it up as part of his prayers for them, along with many other prayers, discussions, and sacrifices. At the time of his death a number of his children had returned to the faith, but still others had not. Yet Dick was confident that the others would come back and although he would not see it from earth, he would see it from heaven. Faith and trust in the Lord and in his goodness allows us to bridge that gap between “our ask and God’s answer”.

It’s difficult to persevere in prayer when we don’t see the answer right away. Yet we need to remember that the Lord is at work preparing the perfect answer in his perfect timing. Let’s hang on and encourage each other to keep at it ….. knowing that Jesus is Lord and He will have the last word….. and that word will be a word of love and peace and joy and hope… and all will be well with our soul. Yes, the Good News of Jesus Christ will have the last word.