Whenever we pray to God about something specific, we tend to want an answer quickly and urgently, and end up mentally imposing some form of deadline on God. In the process, we end up possibly feeling impatient, frustrated, exasperated, and sometimes to the extent of losing hope. However, we need to know that God is just, as the verse says, and His will is perfect.

1. Know that God is Rarely Early – Be Secure

Have you ever noticed that God is not in a hurry? God took 40 years before He gave Moses the commission to lead the people out of Egypt. It took 17 years before Joseph was delivered from slavery and imprisonment, and eventually rose to great power in Egypt. It took 20 years before Jacob was released from Laban's control, and managed to leave prosperous (and with two wives). Abraham and Sarah were in their ripe old age when they finally received the son of promise, Isaac.

We have a Just-In-Time God. When we go to Him with a prayer request, or when we are trapped in some predicament and we ask God for help, God will surely respond because He loves us, but from our human perspective, sometimes it looks like He really takes His own sweet time. However, we need to be mindful of the fact that God is rarely early, and is usually just in time.

Can you imagine if God always comes through for us right when we ask Him to? I’m pretty sure we will turn complacent and take God for granted. If so, we do not need to hope, or expect, or pray till what we ask for comes through. God in His sovereignty comes through for us at often the last possible moment, so that we need to depend entirely on Him, trust Him, and wait for God.

This is the lesson for us. We must wait for God's timing, and usually, it is only upon hindsight that we realize how perfect God’s timing was. When we find contentment in that place, we begin to experience God in ways we never thought possible. Be secure and know that God will come through in the nick of time.

2. Know that God Remembers Everything – Be Still

Sometimes when we don’t see God acting as swiftly as we hope for, we may start to wonder if God had forgotten us. This is the point in time we may grow anxious, or even start to lose faith, if it is a really dire circumstance or urgent matter we are pleading with God about.

This is also the point in time we need to be still before the Lord. We need to develop patience and not fret as the verse says. Sometimes, I think this may be God’s way of testing us to see how much faith we have in Him, and how much we actually trust Him.

If we look at Joseph, for instance, we will realize that he was waiting for deliverance for a whole 17 years. When things seem better, and he was out of slavery, his new master’s wife got him into prison. It would have been an easy position to give up, or think that God has forgotten about him, but he continued to trust God, and eventually not only managed to be freed from prison, he became the pharoah’s right hand man.

Similarly, if we look at David’s life, we will notice the number of years from the point that the prophet anointed him as Israel’s next king to the point when he actually sat on the throne. In that duration, he was persecuted by Saul, chased by Saul’s troops, and was living the life of a fugitive. If he had been praying for help from God, it would surely look like God had forgotten him for those years, but even then David trusted God and obeyed in all that he did.

We need to be patient above all else, and wait for God to do His will, because His timing is perfect and impeccable. He doesn’t forget us; He remembers everything we ask for, and He knows clearest what predicament we are in. Be still and wait for God’s timing.

3. Know God’s Real End – Be Strong

We know we have to wait for God patiently, and rest secure that He is a God of His word, but why does God do this? Why does He take so long sometimes? Looking at the great men of the bible mentioned earlier, it is scary perhaps to note the number of years that went by. 40 years for Moses, 20 years for Jacob, 17 years for Joseph, for instance. That is a long time to be waiting for God.

God had actually called each of these servants to accomplish a certain task in His Kingdom, yet He was in no hurry to bring their mission into fulfillment. First, He needed to accomplish what He wanted in them. The whole reason why we need that God doesn’t work fast enough for us is because we are often more focused on outcome than the process that He is accomplishing in our lives each day. We have to recognize that in these trials where we feel that we really need God and cry out to Him, it is probable that these trials are our life training lessons, and character moulding syllabus. Moses had to wait 40 years because that was probably how long it took for Moses to walk so closely with God till he is considered God’s friend. Jacob had to go through that 20 years with Laban because God was working on changing his character for the better.

This is God’s real end and purpose. The outcomes of our prayers are just incidental. The trials that besiege us are there for a reason, and it is to draw us closer to God, and to shape us to what God intends us to be. For some people, if there were no trials, trouble or predicament, we may not even be seeking God!

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

Psalm 27:14

We need to be strong, and wait for the Lord to do what He wants to accomplish in us, before we bother with the circumstantial.

Further Reflections