When God Delays

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.” Psalm 37:7

Have you ever felt like your life has been placed on hold? Are you waiting but not seeing any results or changes? Perhaps it seems as though God has turned a deaf ear to your cries for justice and His apparent ‘silence’ troubles your sense of integrity and rectitude.

Maybe you fully trust that God is at work but you struggle with His timing. Like David, we cry out, “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1). Or perhaps, like Mary and Martha, you’ve fallen prey to the lie that God’s power is limited to a narrow window of time. “If only you had been here . . .” you cry, your words tinged with disappointment (John 11:21). Or you’ve hit rock bottom, shrugging your shoulders in defeat, thinking time has run out for God to breathe new life into your deepest longings (Mark 5:35). Yet in each situation, God demonstrated that man’s timing is not God’s timing; He always answers at the right time.

God hasn’t turned a deaf ear to us. He hasn’t walked off the job. Our prayers, our plans, our purpose for the future haven’t gone up in a puff of smoke. God is still working in our lives, pulling all the details together in keeping with His sovereign plan. If He ‘delays’ as in Mary and Martha’s situation, it’s not because He’s holding out on us but because He sees the bigger picture and it’s far grander than we could ever imagine.

Thought: “To trust God is to trust His timing. To trust God is to trust His way. God loves me too much to answer my prayers at any other time than the right time and in any other way than the right way. In the quietness of all that doesn’t feel right, this truth does.” – Lysa Terkeurst