Propped up on my desk, challenging me to deny the truth of it, is a square of cardstock with the quote, “The Lord is not slow about his promise.” (2 Peter 3:9) And in between lectures and classes, I go back to my desk, sit down, and re-read the quote, wondering what it means or how it can be true. Just the other day, I was perusing Instagram and came across a post with a quote from C.S. Lewis saying, “I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait.” And, on a more secular note, today I watched a recent clip from a late night show interview where a comedian spoke of the years of waiting to make it big and yet recognizing that if he had become successful earlier, he would have been less prepared to handle the current pressure.
Waiting.
Probably every other post I write deals in some way with the reality of waiting. When encountering the waiting others experience, I think I’m pretty quick to offer some “wise words” or to console them that the waiting is not in vain. Yet it is hard to carry these words in my heart and in my life, to choose to be patient and docile when it feels like the waiting is fruitless.
Recently, I assisted with prayer teams at an event and I found myself saying things like, “Don’t be too rushed to figure out your vocation, God will reveal it in time” and “God won’t forget about you–you aren’t falling behind” and “The Lord has a great plan for you and He won’t forget about you.” These are all things I believe to be true and yet part of the way through the evening, I found myself questioning how I could be so certain about it for others while being so doubtful for myself.
If I believe God has a great plan for this person I barely know, why is it so hard to believe that He has a great plan for me? If I believe God won’t abandon or forget about this person before me, why do I have the nagging concern that He might forget about me?
It is far easier to say the words we know to be true. It is infinitely more difficult to wrap that truth around our hearts and fully enter into it. “Trust the Lord”–easy. Actually trusting the Lord–very difficult.
And yet if I can be incredibly convinced that the Lord never abandons someone and be adamant that the Lord is always faithful, then I must seek to imprint these truths on my own heart. If we wait, there is a reason the Lord permits us to do so. If we are stretched, it is because the Lord is preparing the way for something which cannot yet fit into our hearts. He needs to create more room for this new good thing, more room for Himself.
Whatever you are waiting upon, I hope that your heart is rooted in the goodness of God and the firm conviction that He is not slow nor offering a cruel delay. Instead, like all good gifts, He is preparing the way for a deeper experience of the beauty to be revealed. Rather than being downcast or overly fixated on what is to come, may we receive each present moment as one step closer to the ultimate expression of God’s goodness: our eternal Home in Heaven.
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Photo by Nick Abrams on Unsplash
Seeking After His Heart 