God's slowness is really God's goodness in action

The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning. (2 Peter 3:9)

Is anyone else grateful for God's patience? I know I am! If he held every sin against me, even those committed AFTER I said yes to him, I'd be in a totally miserable place! How about you? Just because you said 'yes' to Jesus doesn't mean you stopped dealing with sin's desires and pulls in your life. In fact, like me, you probably have given in to some of those temptations on occasion. Just like me, you need God's patience and I sure hope you are as grateful for it as I am!

On another note, when God delays his answer to us, how do we take that delay? If you are anything like me, you sometimes question if God even heard your cry for help, or request for something to be done in your life. Maybe you went ahead and did whatever it was you asked God to bless, only to find you were ahead of his plan or out of it totally. A 'change in our way' of dealing with life's challenges, our needs, and even our hopes are called for once we come to Jesus. We might not realize how much we are limiting his ability to act in our life until we stop 'taking action'.

God doesn't welcome us into his family just to leave us to our own devices. He doesn't call for us to repent of our sins to have us return to them time and time again. He isn't afraid to bring conviction if that happens, though! When he does, do we see how intense his love for us really is, or do we justify our actions because of 'his delays' or 'lack of intervention' as we wanted him to intervene? Even if we justify our misguided actions, his love won't let us justify them for very long. He will bring about another set of circumstances aimed at revealing our lack of trust in his timing, methodology, or faithfulness in our lives.

God isn't slow - he is patient! This is something we must learn as it applies to our 'sanctification' - getting our actions to line up with our new heart. It is also something we must learn about his timing and purposes. God has great plans, his timing may not always be evident to us, but we need to trust when he calls us into his family, he has prepared a place for us, as well as a purpose for us. Be grateful for his slowness - it is likely what we need in order to step fully into our place and to begin to fulfill that purpose fully! Just sayin!

So, just a little bit longer?

But don’t forget this one thing, dear friends: To the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

In days gone by the reminders to "be ready" for the Second Coming of Christ were pretty much commonplace. Today we seldom hear those words echoed from the pulpits. Do you ever stop to wonder why? I think it is because we are trying to create "seeker friendly" places where people can come into church gatherings and not be frightened by the "churchy" things we might say and do as Christians. I totally support creating an environment that is welcoming to the sinner and open to the seeker. I also strongly support an environment that preaches the entirety of the gospel message and the truth of the Word. Put both of those together and you have the "best" combination! We must always keep in mind there is this promise of Christ's return - the Second Coming as some might refer to it. The issue is not "when" this return might occur, but simply that we live well in anticipation of our deliverance from the limitations of this earthly body!

If his "first coming" has been effective in our lives, we will be ready for his second coming! It doesn't matter when Christ comes again - it matters that we are found ready to live on for eternity giving God the glory he rightfully deserves! When grace has had time to change our hearts, minds, and ultimately our soul, we begin to live for the glory of God - we live "ready" lives. The delay in his coming is so that his grace may have the chance to touch the lives of many who obviously take their "dear sweet time" allowing that grace to impact their lives! God's timing is perfect, and we should not become frustrated in the waiting. I want us to see this delay as an actual means by which his grace may touch the lives of those we have been praying for over the years. The wait may seem long in our eyes, but in his timing, it is like a split second has passed. To us the years of praying and agonizing over the loved ones who haven't experienced this grace yet seems almost unbearably long. To God, it is undeniably short! To him, that delay is the opportunity many require in order to experience this grace.

We are getting to the place of real "change" in our lives as he delays. At the moment we accept his grace, we are forever changed, but in our daily lives this change may not be totally evident. The delay actually grows our faith and the opportunity to "work out" change is what makes us lean into him a little more each day. We are powerless to change on my own - because change is hard work, and we tire under the burden of change. It takes a toll on us mentally, physically, and especially emotionally. God's delays in our lives may just be so we will realize the need for mental clarity, physical renewal, and emotional balance - something only his grace fully operationalized in our lives can produce.

You have probably heard the little acronym for GRACE: God's Riches At Christ's Expense. We don't understand the riches of God's grace until we experience the change grace brings into our mental, physical and emotional lives. We need time to fully experience how his grace will transform, or re-create the way we think and process information, the stamina and fortitude to perform our daily work, and the life-altering freedom of being controlled by the unreasonableness of our wayward emotions. To this end, he gives us time with him - learning of him, learning from him, and learning to live in him. When this has been fully accomplished, grace has done its work! We live out grace in the hopes another will see and experience the grace of God in theirs. Until he returns, share his grace. Just sayin!

A two day delay

The story of Lazarus is one of those 'memorable moments' we see throughout scripture. Jesus' friend, taken by some form of illness, and his sisters beckon Jesus to come to him so he can be healed. Two days pass before Jesus even begins the journey back to Judea to be with Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Two days! If I was waiting for my brother's healing, knowing Jesus was 'dilly-dallying' in his response to my request, I might get a little miffed about the delay - especially when the delay ended in my brother's death! How many times do we find ourselves in a place where there is a tremendous need like this one, asking Jesus to come quickly, but realizing there will be a 'delay' in what we hoped to happen? If you heard, "Hey, just chill, I am coming, but just not right now," how would that make you feel? My trust would be tested to the max - how about yours?

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” (John 11:1-7)

We can send all kinds of prayer upward, only to hear the answer that it isn't the right timing yet. When we encounter the 'delay', we can oftentimes begin to grumble and complain about the 'wait'. Imagine the two sisters, one kind of 'trusting' and the other kind of 'wavering'. We might just find ourselves getting a bit too close to 'doubt' when the delay seems to be taking us toward an outcome we never wanted to occur. We don't 'want' to doubt, but there is something in what we perceive to be 'unnecessary delays' that can lead us into a place of 'tested faith'. I don't know the reason for the delay when these sisters made such a deliberate and concise plea for Jesus' help, but we know this was going to be one of those 'teachable moments' for not only the sisters, but his disciples and the crowd of mourners who were on the scene that week!

What teachable moment has God given you when you least wanted it? Most of these moments aren't something we 'prepare' for - they happen when we least expected them and in ways we least expected. Two days may not seem like a long time to get an answer, but when the delay seems to present something we didn't want to have happen, we can get pretty disappointed, huh? Death ensued in those two days - a burial had been arranged and now it appeared to be 'too late' for what they had hoped to see happen. Healing was now 'impossible', but resurrection wasn't! Could it be that Jesus wants to bring a bit of 'new life' to us today? 

Could the delay in our answer be because he is about to bring forth something within us that we never imagined possible? We might want to complain, get angry, or mourn for whatever is lost, but if you read on in this story, you will see that Jesus actually gets to Judea, albeit late by what they expected, and he 'stays outside the city'. He didn't even go to their house! Do you know what happened? Martha went to where he was. Some of us see the delay and stay put. Others will get up, find our way to Jesus, and meet him where he is - how about you? The delay isn't meant to discourage us - it is meant to help us seek Jesus - to get out of our places of comfort and to meet him where he is. Just sayin!