God’s Time
OT - Isaiah 64:4, “Since ancient days no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”
NT - Hebrews 11:39-40 “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
NT - Philippians 4:11-13, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
“What time is it?” It’s a question we ask several times each day. How much longer till lunch time? How much longer before we can go home? Time is essential to our lives. We balance our entire lives around the clock. We have schedules and plans and timeframes and timetables, all set to keep our lives moving and going and keeping things “On time!”
But with all this planning, all this adjusting, all of this “time management” we are left on many occasions… waiting. And nothing is more irritating to us than waiting on somebody else.
I had an experience just the other day getting my haircut. It was a little after noon this last Friday. The place was packed and there were only two hairstylists in the place to cut hair. People were getting anxious and angry and impatient. We were all made to wait. There was one woman who was getting her haircut who was … to put it mildly… being difficult. She was holding up the lines and the people waiting were getting even more angry at the hairdresser for taking so long. I finally got my turn, and sat next to the “difficult” woman. I got my entire haircut in the time it took for this woman to argue about how her “usual hairdresser did this and didn’t do that.” She finished just before me and left in a huff without even so much as giving her hairdresser a pennies tip. That is one way we can react to being forced to wait. I, however, decided to react another way. I patiently waited for my turn, patiently waited for my hair to be cut, and was thankful for the haircut I received. Then, while I was being run up, I made my check out for $10 more, I gave my hairdresser her usual $5 tip, and then called over “Sarah” who was the hairdresser for the woman I talked about before. I said to Sarah, you did an AWESOME job on that ladies hair, here’s a five for you too! Well this brought a smile and a laugh to everyone in the place, and I left with a smile myself.
But what I took away from that experience was a greater understanding of what it means to wait patiently. The woman, by nagging and pushing and hurrying, didn’t get the haircut she desired, and left angry and resentfull because of it.
I sometimes shake my head at peoples lack of patience. I blame part of it on today’s instant gratification society. Everything has become more convenient. Instant Online Payments, Fast Cash Withdrawl Checking, Fast Food, Cell Phones, the list goes on and on and on. The question has turned from, how long do I have to wait, and turned itself into Why do I have to wait at all?
This waiting business becomes increasingly more difficult as the subject matter becomes more serious as well. When we have to wait on life, it becomes unbearable. When we have to wait on God, it becomes intolerable. We could be waiting for endless possibilities. We may be waiting for an answer to our prayer. We may be waiting for a physical healing. We may be waiting for a wayward child to return home. We may be waiting for that job promotion. We may be anxiously waiting the arrival of a new minister. Whatever it is we are waiting upon, we view this delay as an unwelcome interruption in our life. We can’t wait to get past this roadblock, so that we can get on with living.
Why would God want to make me unhappy? What possible reason would he have for making me wait? I am in a hurry, so why isn’t God?
The answer to this lies in God’s perfect timing. God’s timing isn’t something that’s unfamiliar to us if we have a relationship with Christ that’s real and personal. Corrie Tenboom talked of her experiences during WW2 and of how in all her years of trusting God she had never known God to arrive early but she had also never known God to be late because God is always right on time.
In our lesson from Philipians today, we heard about how Paul learned to be content in all things, but the key word in this verse is “learned”. Being content right where we are does not come naturally for us. What comes natural is thinking that changing our circumstances will make us content. So waiting is perceived as unpleasant because it is seen as a delay to improving our circumstances and thus it delays our ultimate happiness. The risk of viewing waiting as unpleasant is that we will sometimes force the issue to bring about change and then suffer the consequences.
So, if we view the season of waiting from man’s perspective we may end up with some pretty terrible consequences. So when we enter the season of waiting, we need to see it from God’s point of view.
Three years ago I applied to Seminary. I was young, immature, and overconfident of myself, and applied far too late, and didn’t get into seminary. I was shocked, humbled, and eventually very angry with God. Viewed from my perspective, my happiness was not being met because I was kept from doing what I wanted to do, and I wasn’t given what I wanted. I could have forced the issue, could have applied to a different school, or pulled some strings to get into the school I wanted, but I didn’t, I decided to take time off, and wait.
Now, three years later, I have had time to grow, time to mature, time to learn, time to play guitar in a fantastic praise band, and a time to practice giving sermons in a real church before even leaving for seminary. With this new maturity and learning, I have been accepted to seminary, and will be going a MUCH better man than if I had went three years ago. Looking from this perspective, God doesn’t look so dumb all of a sudden. Yes I had to wait, and the waiting was unpleasant, but it was for a purpose. If we can learn that waiting is not a delay, but a time of learning it will become valuable to us.
God sees waiting as valuable because it gives us time to gain knowledge, time to develop, time to mature, and time to learn how to be content. It gives us a chance to know Him better. God sees waiting as valuable because it teaches us the relationship between waiting and trust.
In today’s verse from Isaiah we hear “you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” That phrase merges trusting with waiting. When you wait for something, you really see how much you believe in your heart that God will provide it. The longer we wait, the more our faith is put to the test and strengthened. It is easy to trust when answers come quickly, it is more difficult when we have to wait for answers.
God sees waiting as valuable because the outcome is so incredible. In our verse from Hebrews we learn that God didn’t give them what they had been promised, but instead since they had shown faith and waited, gave them something much better. If we rush ahead of God, we may get something good but it is not the best. If we are able to wait for God we will get the best.
Without a doubt I believe that I will become a better pastor in the end for having to wait three years. Even though I saw it as unjust and wrong of God to make me wait, even though I saw it as a huge inconvenience to my happiness, it is in all actuality a gift from God.
M.H. Lount once commented on this saying, "God’s best gifts come slowly. We could not use them if they did not. Many a man, called to the service of God is convinced that the Lord means to bring his efforts to a successful conclusion. Nevertheless, even such a confident worker grows discouraged at times and worries because results do not come as rapidly as he would desire. But growth and strength in waiting are results often greater than the end so impatiently longed for. Paul had time to realize this as he lay in prison. Moses must have asked, ’Why?’ many times during the delays in Midian and in the wilderness. Jesus Himself experienced the discipline of delay in His silent years before His great public ministry began."
God wants us to see results as we work for Him, but His first concern is our growth. That’s why He often withholds success until we have learned patience. The Lord teaches us this needed lesson through the blessed discipline of delay.
Our church now finds itself in a time of waiting for a pastor. How long must we wait? What lessons does God have for us to learn before our season of waiting will come to an end? Are we waiting patiently, or are we forcing the issue? About the only thing I have to say on the issue is to quote an old saying: “Good things come to those who wait” and I feel that those who wait upon the Lord will find this to be amazingly true. Psalm 40:1 reminds us, “I waited patiently for the Lord: he turned to me and heard my cry.” God hears our cries, and understands what we feel and what we are going through, and he will be there to bring us out of this time of waiting, into the fulfillment of his plan for our lives.
There is a time of waiting in everyone’s life. We must choose if we will wait the way man normally waits which is impatiently or wait God’s way.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
