Patiently waiting....

How much longer do I need to wait? I've been praying and patiently waiting for this thing for so long now. Why hasn't God given it to me yet? I'm so desperate, I need it so bad, doesn't God see that? Why isn't this pandemic over yet? How much longer? We keep asking these questions, don't we? We want everything now. We can't wait.

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Jude 1:14‭-‬15

Jewish texts say that when Enoch asked God when this destruction would come, God gave him his son's name. Enoch's son was Methuselah, which means "when he dies, it shall be sent". And what do you know, it was so! The flood that destroyed the whole world but Noah and his family alone were saved from, came the year that Methuselah died, fulfilling this prophesy that was given to Enoch.

You're probably wondering why I'm talking about this now. You may recall that Methuselah lived for almost a 1000 years, well 969 years, to be precise. 

God waited almost a 1000 years after giving that prophecy to make it come to pass.

What a vast difference between how we perceive and count time and how God does! He who knows it all from beginning to end is willing to wait and endure and be patient for eons of time. Whereas, we want everything now! We don't want to wait even for a minute. We're cribbing constantly as to why God hasn't fixed it already. We don't realize that it is out of His grace, mercy and love that He tarries.

For the one who knows it all, it would be easy to fast forward everything and bring what He wills in the end to pass. But He tarries because He wants us to be able to catch up. He prolongs it all so that our slow minds, hearts and bodies can keep in step. That's why there's always a period of waiting before a big change, so that we have time to prepare for it. An engagement period before marriage, the pregnancy before the baby is actually handed to us. Imagine if it were otherwise...

He knows the pace that we can handle and doesn't push us too far beyond that. He slowly chips away at the things in our lives that aren't useful to Him, because He knows that cutting away a huge chunk at one go would cause us more pain than we can handle. And He is gracious when we falter and stumble and fumble, not hurrying us up as we often do with Him.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

So the next time that you feel God is taking too long, know that He's not doing it because He hasn't heard you or doesn't see how desperate you are. But because He's gracious and knows what we can handle. And because He's the one patiently waiting.