I was listening to a sermon by Keith Moore about the leading of the Holy Spirit. He shared about a time when he was believing that God would help him with a very important task, but his patience was starting to wane. He felt the Lord telling him, “Keith, when you ask for big things, be prepared to stand long.”

Possessing long-suffering patience certainly is an issue for most (if not all) Christians. It certainly is an issue in my life. To build our faith, let’s learn more about why God makes us wait for visible deliverance from circumstances.

• First, a little encouragement - Mr. Moore noted that God didn’t say “You will stand long”. Rather, He cautioned us to “be prepared to.” God can take a problem away in an instant. God didn’t wait a month or two to slowly raise Lazarus from the dead (John, Ch. 11). We can be expectant for God’s deliverance without violating God’s command to not place demands on Him.
  

  Mat 4:7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

  Think of it like how we wait for his return. It could be today, or it may not. Regardless, we are ready.

• God does it like this - Call it “reaping and sowing”, “seedtime and harvest”, or “cause and effect”; this is how God works, and he is conforming us to him through the image of Christ (as long as we allow Him). Just consider the infinite patience God has with mankind! God wants us to learn to work as he does, sowing good seed through faith, patience, and love. This “equation” will bring the best results from the life we are blessed with.
• Undoing the damage - There are some circumstances when the lesson can be taught later (Lazarus example). In most circumstances though, it is more beneficial if the lesson is taught first. By working with us (yes, he really is if we are seeking his will), we learn far greater lessons that will impact our future behavior. This is the “give a man a fish, teach a man to fish” principle. God wants to take the “training wheels” off us. Whether that happens here on earth, or in heaven, I don’t know. I just know that I have quite a ways to go : )
• Delay can be God’s protection from ourselves - Sometimes God delays deliverance, because giving us the desires of our heart at that point may be detrimental to our lives. God first works with us for a change of heart.

  A good example is in my career, where I wished for greater financial blessings for my family through my own business. I knew in my spirit that God designed me to be an entrepreneur, but just could not find success. I cried out to God, covering the range of emotions from strong faith to outright depression and fear. I thought, “I know God is real, and I believe he cares for me. Why doesn’t God help me?” You know what? God was helping me all along. I just needed the perspective that only the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and the passing of time could provide. God was waiting for me to learn important lessons about how money and business relate to God’s plan for my life. God knew that if my family’s needs were met by increased income, that our faith would forever be tied to my business dealings, not God. Fortunately, through the Bible we are able to learn what it took the “great ones of the Bible” their entire lifetime to learn.

  I found this wisdom and teaching in the book of Proverbs, and throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, where I learned that all financial wealth and accomplishments are “meaningless”. In the end, our bodies go into the dust, and our spirits to be with the Lord. My relationship with him should be my treasure - not my job, or even my family.

  It takes a long time to learn to lay down the desires of our flesh for material things, and to place our security in our Creator. I still battle with it. However, I believe the Lord when he says that he will complete the good work he has begun.

  Phi 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

  I am sure He will do it for you, too.

• God is sovereign - The most famous illustration of this is in Job, where God is speaking to him at the end. God tells Job plainly can he not understand the ways of God as a human with limited perspective.
  

  Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

  As a result, all Job needed was to obey God’s commandments and have faith. If Job knew that the story of his life would be told to everyone around the earth for the rest of the history of the world, I bet he would have been more trusting. Unfortunately none of us have that luxury. We just need to have faith.

Let’s learn from Job - have faith that God will bring us through. Who knows, maybe our great-grandkids will be telling their children about this time in our life, and how it was just the beginning of something much greater.

God bless,

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