Hardest Spiritual Lesson #6: Accepting God's Timing

Learning to be okay with God’s Time and God’s Way

A.k.a.: Learning to Trust

(Somewhat of a continuation of #5: Just do your job)

1 Peter 5:6-7: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.”

In due time!  Such a scary thought for us.  Such a hard thing to accept and to wait for.  How hard it is to humbly submit our lives to the Lord’s timing and way.  But if we want to have the kind of life He wants for us, then we have to learn to humble ourselves before Him and to wait for Him to lift us up - in His time and in His way.

But we're too anxious for that, aren't we?  Too hasty?  Too self-focused?  We want what we want when we want it.  We have our own ideas of how and when things should happen.  We have dreams we want to fulfill, plans we want to succeed, goals we want to achieve, and prayers we want to be answered... NOW!  And yet sometimes, time goes on and things aren't working out the way we hoped or expected, and so we pray some more, but nothing happens, which makes us more discouraged and leaves us wondering if God is even listening.  Or maybe there's something wrong with us and our faith?  

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."

In due time!  Do you know what this means?  That the wait is normal.  God’s silence or "inactivity" is normal.  

"Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.”

And this tells me that long waits are normal, the kind of waits that dredge up all sorts of anxieties and doubts and fears.  We're told to bring our anxieties to the Lord when we're waiting on Him because He knows that waiting on Him will cause anxiety.  And the best way to get through it is not to bottle it all up or slap a phony smile on your face and sigh "Okay, Lord, whatever you want," but we need to bring our doubts, fears, concerns, and bad feelings to the Lord honestly.  Admit them to Him, give them to Him, and let Him take it from there and calm our anxious hearts.

We'll all end up waiting on God at times, but how many of us will wait well?  How many of us will humbly wait on God and trust Him to handle our futures, instead of us trying to force our plans and dreams to happen when we want them to?

Did you know that God promised Abraham a son 25 years before that son was born?  That's a long wait.  I used to think "Why didn't God wait to tell Abraham about the promised son until about a year before the son came?  That would be more reasonable.  And it wouldn't have given Abraham time to flub it up by sleeping with Hagar.  Why a delay of 25 years!?!  Anyone would lose hope by that point and blow it."

But I believe God had a good reason for telling Abraham about the promise long before He fulfilled it, instead of fulfilling His promise right away.  Seeing how Abraham handled the long, discouraging wait was a test of faith, exposing what was really in his heart and where he really put his trust - because it eventually exposed Abraham's impatience with God when he decided to "help" God fulfill His promise of a son by sleeping with Hagar.  When he saw that the promise wasn't being fulfilled within the time-frame he thought it should be, he decided to trust in his human wisdom and ideas instead of in God's, leading to consequences God didn't plan for him.  

The long wait helped expose what was in Abraham's heart.  And in the long run, it helped him learn about how different God's ways and timing are from ours, about God's faithfulness, about obedience and trust, and about how God can fulfill His promises in mysterious - and even miraculous - ways, even when we doubt Him.  

Long waits will dredge up in our hearts and minds all kinds of doubts and fears about ourselves, God, prayer, faith, and life.  We'll struggle with our hopes, dreams, desires, plans, opinions, and with temptations to force our way instead of waiting on and following God's way, especially if we think we know better than Him or if we feel like He's taking too long or doesn't care or isn't listening.    

You know, this reminds me of something else.  We've all heard sermons about God providing manna for the Israelites in the desert, right?  And what's usually the point the preacher is trying to make?  It's usually about trusting God to provide in difficult circumstances and about celebrating God’s miraculous provision, right?  

Yes, that’s definitely a main lesson of the story.  But do you know that there's another lesson most of us miss, a lesson I've never heard any preacher preach on? 

Deuteronomy 8:16: “He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.”  

And verse 2 explains why He tested them: “... in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

Yes, manna was a miracle, a blessing, heavenly providence.  Amen, praise God, hallelujah!  

But it was also a test.  Manna was intended not only to be a miraculous blessing to sustain them and provide for their basic human needs and inspire and encourage them, but it was also intended to be - and I hope this doesn't sound sacrilegious - a monotonous, boring, bland blessing that would eventually become a disappointment, to expose what was really in the people's hearts, to see if they would still obey Him and praise Him and trust Him and love Him even when things weren't the way they wanted and life was bland and His blessings were common and taken for granted.    

Sure, we're all about praising God when something fun, new, desirable, fulfilling, exciting, and miraculous comes our way.  We raise our hands and say "Thank you, God!  You're so good!  You're amazing!  I trust You, love You, and I'll follow You forever."

But what about when the excitement isn't there?  When things don't go the way we hoped?  When it's been a very long time since we've experienced a miracle, or seen God work, or had our hopes fulfilled, or gotten a new blessing, or felt His presence in a tangible way?  

In one act, God proved not only a miraculous life-sustaining blessing for the Israelites, but He also gave them a test to see what was really in their hearts: What would the people do when God's blessings to them - His daily care for them - was little more than a bowl of cornflakes, meal after meal, day after day, year after year?  

What would we do?  

What would we do when the only blessings we feel like we're getting right now are continued health, food on our plates, and a roof over our heads?  What would we do when the only thing we can think of to praise God for is the fact that worse things aren't happening to us, that the tragic newspaper headlines don't contain our names, that the blessings we take for granted haven't been taken away from us, such as our jobs, our health, our homes, our ability to see, our arms and legs, our family, etc.?  

God provided a blessing to the Israelites – manna – which was also a disappointment, on purpose, to test their faith and commitment to Him, to see if they really wanted Him or if they just wanted exciting gifts from Him.  Would they still trust Him and believe in Him and follow Him and love Him even when things didn’t go their way, when the trials were long, when the wait was discouraging, and when His blessings were bland and ordinary?  Would we?

Extended trials, long waits, and years of bland, common, ordinary blessings certainly do bring out what's buried deep in our hearts.  And I think that's sometimes why God allows the extended trials, the long waits, the common and overlooked blessings we take for granted, the lingering disappointments, the unanswered prayers: to test our faith, to see what's really in our hearts, to uncover our heart idols, to show us if we are truly grateful for what we do have, to expose our priorities, and to show us what we're putting our trust in and our hopes on.  

Long waits, bland blessings, or dry spiritual times force us to examine our theology, our beliefs and expectations of God and ourselves and faith.  They uncover why we are really following Him and who's really on the throne in our lives: us or God.  Is our faith in God or in ourselves?  Do we really want His way, or do we just want our own?  Are we willing to get in line with His Will or are we expecting Him to get in line with ours?  Are we trying to circumvent God's timing, to shorten the wait on our own, to "help" God answer our prayers, to force our dreams and plans to happen, to lead the way out?  Or, after doing all we know He's told us to do, will we simply trust Him and wait on Him to lead us when the time is right?  Do we praise Him only when we're getting what we want, or is He still worthy of praise even when things aren't going our way?

(If God is testing you with years of manna - boring, bland, common, non-exciting years of the same old stuff, corn flakes every day - be thankful.  Because God could've allowed years of tragedy to test you instead.  Don't wait for a tragedy - losing one or more of those boring blessings we take for granted - to learn to appreciate what you have while you have it, to thankfully praise God for it.  Don't wait until you lose something to realize how blessed you were to have it all that time.  What a sad waste of a blessing!)  

   

Five reasons

I think there are at least five reasons why God remains silent sometimes and makes us wait for stretches of time: 

1.  It’s a time of discipline - a time when He has “withdrawn” to give us a little jolt to help open our eyes to our sins and the effect they've caused.  This is to help us adjust our course as we walk with Him, and we should be deliberate about righting any wrongs and asking forgiveness as soon as we can.

2.  It’s a time of being turned over to the hardness of our hearts because we neglected Him, disobeyed Him, or resisted His conviction for too long.  Or maybe we have outright rebelled or turned our back on Him.  First, He tries to get our attention, to help us get back on track.  But if we persist in sin or rebellion, He has no choice but to let us walk our own path farther and farther away from Him, which removes us from His Will and protective care, exposing us to the risk of demonic harassment or oppression.  This kind of silence is to be feared and taken very seriously.  It is dangerous territory and can reap severe consequences. 

3.  It’s a time of testing, pruning, and potential growth, a stepping-stone to a deeper, stronger, purified faith.  Maybe He's pruning us of wrong expectations we have of Him, of faith, and of ourselves.  Maybe He's pruning us of heart idols, things we shouldn't be asking for, dreams we shouldn't be pursuing, plans we shouldn't be making, etc.  Maybe He's encouraging us to reprioritize our goals and values and helping us learn to cut out the things that distract us from a deeper walk with Him, helping us get our desires and our wills in line with His desires and His Will.  Or maybe it's that He knows we're ready to learn greater faith lessons, ones that can only be learned the hard way.  Sometimes, ironically, when we're ready to pursue Him more faithfully and reach for Him more earnestly than ever before, He seems to withdraw even more.  But this silence shouldn't be feared.  He is there with you, encouraging you toward greater godly growth and character, like a parent who keeps taking steps backward as their child learns to walk toward them.  Allow this time to purify your desires and requests and priorities and expectations, to grow your faith and your trust in Him, and to draw you closer to Him through prayer and His Word than ever before. 

4.  It’s a time to teach us to be content with God’s right to say “no” or “wait,” and to teach us to learn to rest in Him, praise Him, and count our blessings even when we're not getting what we want when we want.  How we handle the "no/wait" answers might just impact how long He makes us wait and the timing of His answers to our prayers.

5.  And sometimes it’s just because He’s working on the answer to our prayers, but it’s not ready yet.  Or we're not ready yet.  Either the answer isn't ready yet because He's still getting all the pieces in order, or maybe we aren't ready yet to receive our answer and so He's still getting us in order.  Either way, at this point, He might have nothing more to say than “Hang in there, I’m working on it.  Your answer is coming.  Just keep walking with Me in faith and daily obedience, finding your comfort, joy, and peace in Me until then.”  

During the wait:

When you find yourself in an extended time of waiting, of God’s silence, and you're getting confused and discouraged and don’t know what to do, consider what this time of waiting may be about.  

Is it for discipline?  Is it because you're in rebellion about something or disobeyed something you know He told you to do?  Is there something you need to confess and ask forgiveness for and make right?  Is there someone you know He's been telling you to forgive but you've been resisting?  Are you focused on or pursuing things you shouldn't be?  Are you asking for things you shouldn't ask for?  Do you need to approach your situation or pray about it from a different angle?  Maybe there's a lesson He wants you to learn that can only be learned in a long wait, through disappointment?  Ask Him what it is, to help you learn it.  Or maybe He just wants you to want Him more and to be satisfied with Him, instead of just wanting His gifts and being satisfied only when you're getting the exciting blessings you set your heart on?  Maybe He's trying to show you that you've actually, unknowingly, been trying to manipulate Him into giving you what you want, instead of humbling yourself before Him?  Maybe you need to start seeking His plans, desires, and will, instead of your own?  Or maybe the long wait isn't because He's trying to teach you some sort of special lesson, but maybe it's just that He's working on the answer and you're being impatient?  Or is He challenging you to give Him the right to say “no,” testing you to see who's on the throne in your heart, to see if you'll still trust Him as your good heavenly Father and as Lord of your life even when you don't get what you want?  Maybe He's teaching you to praise Him and trust Him even when you're not getting what you want, and to count the blessings He's already given you, the ones you take for granted while you keep asking Him for more things or different things?  Or could it just be that God is asking you to climb higher and dig deeper in your walk with Him, to fully plant your faith and trust in Him, to grow in spiritual maturity?

There are many reasons why God might "take too long."  And so as you struggle with discouragement and confusion and doubt and fear during the wait, talk to Him about it.  Ask His opinion about what He wants you to do or learn in the wait, if there's something He's waiting on you for (maybe you are the reason for the delay - not Him - maybe it's something you're doing or not doing), how you should pray, what you should focus on, how you can glorify Him in the wait, etc.  And see what He says.  It might surprise you.  (And it might not even be about you after all.)  

And when you've done all you can do and prayed all you can pray and are obeying all you know He's asking you to do... and yet you're still waiting... then it might be time to stop trying to get your answer from God and to start living the life you're in, finding ways to grow spiritually and to glorify God during the wait, to learn how to praise Him in the midst of pain, to count your blessings, to turn your focus to someone else who's in need, to get to know more about who God really is in His Word, and to learn to live out verses like these:

Matthew 26:39: "... 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.'"

Job 1:21,2:10: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.... Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-9,16-18: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed… Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

2 Corinthians 10:3-5: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

2 Corinthians 12:9-10: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Ephesians 3:16-19: “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  Amen.”

Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”  [With thanksgiving!  I believe the level of peace we get is proportional to the amount of thanksgiving we do.  We don't have to thank God for the pain, but there are always things to thank Him for in the pain, or maybe the good that came out of the pain.  Try praying with thanksgiving, and see if it has an effect on your heart and mind and faith.] 

Philippians 4:8: “… whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”

Colossians 3:2,23-24: “Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things… Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Jesus you are serving.”

Philippians 3:13: “… Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.  I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

1 Peter 1:5-6,15,13: “[you] through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials… But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do… Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

1 Peter 5:7-10: “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.  Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.  And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

1 Cor. 10:13: "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

Philippians 4:13: “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."

1 Timothy 6:6: "But godliness with contentment is great gain."  [Do you realize that we cannot plan on being content later, when we finally get what we want.  Because contentment that's based on getting what we want is not really contentment.  Planning to be content later automatically means it's not true contentment at all.  Contentment is being at peace - a deep spiritual peace, even in the midst of pain and longing - in whatever circumstances we're in.  Contentment has to start today, with the life we have, as it is, or else it never starts at all.] 

Don't waste the long wait.  If you've got to wait anyway, make it worth it.  Make it mean something.  Get something out of it.  We can't make God go faster than He wants to or force Him to give us something He doesn't want to give us, but we can make the most of the long wait and grow through it.  (And if there's something God doesn't want to give us, is it something we should really be pursuing or desiring for ourselves anyways?  Don't let a prayer request become an idol or something you judge God's "God-ness" or goodness by.)  

We can't learn today's lessons tomorrow.  It has to be today!

The faith lessons worth learning cannot easily be learned in the short waits or when we're getting whatever we want whenever we want.  They can only be learned in the long waits, the "unanswered" prayers, the extended trials, the pain.  And these times can either break our faith and crush our hearts, or they can purify our faith and build our trust.  (Or maybe both, in that order.)  And it's up to us which direction we head in, depending on what we do with our pain, fears, and doubts during the wait.  

Satan wants to discourage us with longs waits and unanswered prayers.  He wants us to focus on our desires instead of on the Lord.  He wants us to be more concerned with what we want than what we already have.  He wants us to think that God is holding out on us or can't be trusted or doesn't care, and so we have to do it on our own.  He wants us to think that God is only in the exciting times and big blessings and great accomplishments, not in the boring times and bland blessings and small accomplishments.  He wants us to put our effort into making our plans happen instead of simply obeying what God is telling us to do today.  (Obedience is a decision, an act of the will.  It's not a feeling.  So you don't have to "feel like it" in order to obey.  Just do it.)  He wants us to complain instead of praise, to feel let down by God instead of cared for and blessed by God.  He wants us to think God is a heavenly vending machine whose primary concern is to make us happy when we do faith "right," when we our money in and push the button.  He wants us to judge God's goodness and "God-ness" based on how He answers our prayers, on if God gives us what we want or not, if He meets our expectations or not.  

Satan wants the long waits and unanswered prayers and extended trials to be stumbling stones, not stepping-stones.  

But we can turn the long waits and unanswered prayers and extended trials into blessings, times of growth, and deep, sweet communion with God.  We can let them draw us closer to God instead of farther away.  We can let them purify our faith, trust, theology, and expectations as they dredge up more and more fears, doubts, walls, sins, idols, and misconceptions about ourselves and God and as we bring these things to the Lord in prayer and search the Word for what God says about it all.  Through it all, we can learn lessons we'd never be able to learn in the easy, carefree, exciting times.

So don't waste a trial.  Don't let manna be just manna, when it can be so much more than that.  Get the most out of it while you can.  If you've got to wait anyway, may as well do it right.  Be responsible for whatever you know He's telling you to do today and let Him have tomorrow.  I believe if we are faithfully doing the daily things He tells us to do and abiding in Him all along the way -  even if it feels like wasted time to us - He will straighten out the path under our feet as we walk, opening and closing doors as they need to be opened or closed, and we'll end up where He wants us to be. 

And maybe in the end, when the wait is over, God will finally give you what you wanted because He knows you're ready to handle it now.  Or maybe, instead of getting what you wanted, you'll realize that you never really needed it to begin with, that His timing and plans were better than anything you could've dreamed up, and that you actually got something far better in the end, what you really needed: more of God Himself and the blessings He knows are best for you.

Psalm 37:7: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him...” 

Hebrews 12:1: “... let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Psalm 9:10: “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

Deuteronomy 31:6: “Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or terrified ... for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” 

Colossians 3:10-11: “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience...”

Philippians 1:6: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”