The Slow Work of God

This post is a devotional from The Power to Make A Difference, a compilation of  Strategies, Insights and Encouragement in Forty Short Bible Studies.

Meme designed by Barbara Latta.  

A few years ago, I came across these words: "Above all," the author quoted Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "trust in the slow work of God."

I'm not familiar with the late Chardin, but I like the quote. It reminds me of my notebook. I'm quite fond of my little notebook. A thoughtful friend gave it to me. It's useful in my times of being still and knowing that God is God and I am not. These times of stillness are based on Psalm 46:10.

In the measure of an hour that turns into a day that soon turns into a decade, a multitude of prayers will cross my lips. Many are answered with great joy. So many that I always fall asleep before I'm done counting them. 

       Truly, God is good. He has compassion on all that belongs to Him. (Psalm 145:9)*

However, one very BIG request, a fervent desire, has yet to be. It continually stays on my mind, heart and lips. It's ever before me. My prayer -- what I want so much to see -- is in keeping with Scripture. When the answer comes, many broken people will be healed. Great glory will be given to God. Unspeakable joy will peal throughout the small corner of my modest plot. That joy would then reach to the four corners of the globe.

So the waiting is difficult. It's hard to understand the delay. Especially when it seems with each passing day, the answer is farther from my grasp. Waiting for such an answer makes me re-think my stance on liking things slow. I want the answer right now. And I find myself anxious, weary, and impatient even though I don't want to be.

Yet in my times of being still, I find God is always present. Even though He takes His own sweet time in bringing things to pass, He is so trustworthy. He is the Creator of time. He is the Master of time. He's not limited to the passage of time in the way that I understand it. He never runs late so any attempt to rush Him is useless.

The writer of Ecclesiastes tells me in Chapter 3 that there is a season for everything. Everything has its own time. I read in verse 11:

      He has made everything beautiful in its time. 
     He has also set eternity in the human heart; 
     yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

In Deuteronomy 29:29, I find:

    The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and
     to our children for ever, that we may follow all the works of this law.

My angst is eased when I ponder these words. I'm reminded that time is a matter of eternity. Even though God has put eternity in our hearts, the timing of eternity is all God's doing. His business, so to speak. And there are some things -- secret things -- that belong to Him alone. 

When my prayer will be answered must be a secret thing. It must not be something for me to fathom. It's not for me to grasp.

But the things He has shown, the things He has revealed, like His Word that became flesh and is so full of grace and truth (John 1:14) and those already answered prayers that are too numerous to count. I can fathom these. They are mine to grasp right now.

I want to enjoy them. I want to follow them. I want to share them with my children and with those who struggle with their own unanswered prayers. Many are waiting, just like me, for an answer to a prayer that stays continually on their minds, hearts and lips. In this life, waiting is like another standard operating procedure.

And so, in my being still time, I will think on these things. I will remember that God is God and I am not.  I will ponder the Chardin quote. I will keep my notebook handy. And I will not rush God because rushing is rude.

So maybe, just maybe, I really am learning to trust in the slow work of God.

                                                                        ***************

Prayer:
Gracious God, thank You for hearing my prayers. There are so many crossing my lips and staying on my heart and mind. Grant me a greater sense of You. Help me grasp the prayers You have already answered. Help me grateful. Forgive my futile attempts to rush You. Teach me to trust You with the secret things that are not yet revealed. For truly, there has never been a more caring God than You.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.


*All Scripture verses are taken from the NIV.

1.http://www.deeper-devotion.net/slow-work-of-god.html.

The Power to Make a Difference,
a compilation by Lighthouse Bible Studies, LLC,
Available on their website and Amazon.