When it takes too long

July 27, 2011

 

           I hate waiting but the sad thing is, waiting is inevitable. Statisticians say that a person waits for about 62 minutes a day. So if someone lives for at least 70 years, the sum total of the time waiting for something or someone or what have you amounts to 3 years. Can you imagine that? 3 years of not doing anything, just waiting.

 

            What I hate about waiting is the feeling of uncertainty; that at some point, you know that your waiting can be put in vain. That after long hours or days or weeks or years of waiting, nothing will change.  I have a lot of petitions and some of them are already answered (Praise God!) but some, are still on hold and I am still waiting for God to fulfill them. Well that’s the thing with Christianity. Even in ah hour of walk with God, there are times that we need to wait.

 

           I have heard a lot of stories on waiting. Waiting for the right person to arrive, waiting for the right time to change, waiting for the right job, right opportunity, right timing.  The sad thing is, at the middle of the process, between the petition and God actually fulfilling His promise, people quit. They stop praying, they stop asking God for it, they just stop. Some even stop believing.  At times when we feel lost and that there’s no direction. At times when we feel nothing’s gonna work and that waiting drains us along with the anxiety and worry, what is the right thing to do? Do we quit on God? Or endure the next season waiting?

 

Then the LORD replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald [Or so that whoever reads it] may run with it.

For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it [Or Though he linger, wait for him; he] will certainly come and will not delay.

- Habakkuk 2:2-3

 

Why does God allow us to wait? What do we do when we wait? In the text God tells Habakkuk to write down the revelation and wait for it. Now, what was the revelation? It’s the book of Habakkuk itself. If we’re going to study the whole book, chapter one tells us that God will bring judgment to Israel. On chapter two, it states there how God will discipline the Babylonians. And finally in Chapter three, it talks about God’s response to Habakkuk’s prayer.

 

In verse 3 it says there, it awaits an appointed time. This tells us that there is a proper time for its fulfillment. Some promises were fulfilled when Habakkuk’s still alive, others, beyond his generation. The good news is, all of them were fulfilled.

 

            When God told Habakkuk that there’s a revelation and that he needs to wait for it, what choice did Habakkuk have? Habakkuk had the choice to wait or not to wait since he has free will. Now applying this to our lives, when we’re praying for breakthroughs in our lives, we have a choice: either to wait on God which is not an easy thing to do or to adhere to the philosophy which says ‘God helps those who help themselves’. This alternative obviously is tempting since it calls for our immediate action which is under our control. But little do we recognize that this alternative is a compromise. We invest our time in something that is not what God wants us to do, which more often than not leads to addictions and vices since we have the ‘control’ over our time and resources.   Now what did Habakkuk do? He embraced God though he didn’t understand. He waited.

 

            The problem with the Filipino culture when it comes to waiting is that we associate it with Juan Tamad. The story of Juan Tamad who waited for the fruit to drop into his mouth instead of climbing up the tree to get it. Now waiting in Christianity is different. Waiting is not passive but rather active. See for example, a waiter is called a waiter because he waits for your orders and while you’re eating, he waits for you to finish and just waits until you call him for additional orders or what have you. Now when we are serving God, even if takes too long, even if doesn’t make sense, we must keep serving, keep praying, keep trusting. As G. Campbell Morgan put it

 

“Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.” 

 

Also in Galatians 6:9, it says there

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

 

Readiness is part of waiting. When things don’t go well, do we still srve and obey? Do we still love Him? Or we blame Him for it all? Another parallelism, the sentinel. The sentinel takes his post at night and he doesn’t do that without reason. He is always alert to take an action. He is always in vigilance because it may mean the lives of his comrades. He goes up to the rampart to have a broader view. Habakkuk also did this. In 2:1

 

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. [Or and what to answer when I am rebuked]

 

In the ramparts, one’s perspective widens and  there are even spiritual transformations; from darkness to light then hope.   This is the reason why even in times when we don’t understand God and it is taking too long, God’s glory will cover for it.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. 2:14

 

In a moment when it seems it’s taking too long or it seems too late, God’s glory will be revealed. The wait is long because our parameter is our time. If only we understand that God moves in a different timetable, there will be less whining and complaining. We can wait if we are confident that God will reveal His glory.

But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” 2:20

 

 

 There is always hope. God is saying “I am still in charge. I am still in control. I am still seated on the throne. “ So why do we have to worry and stop waiting? We need to stop thinking like the hamsters. Their only concern is getting the cheese. We need to go the rampart and wait for the Lord there for it where His glory will be revealed. He will show us that He is still sovereign and is always in control.

 

As what we always hear, the righteous will live by his faith……and faith is defined in Hebrews as belief in something you can’t see.

 

 all these people were still living by faith when they died. They saw the promises unfold at a distance realizing they were just strangers on earth. Hebrews 11:13

 

Now to end, what is the benefit  for those of us who wait?

 

 Isaiah 40:31

but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.    

 

Wait on the Lord and your strength will be renewed. Be blessed!

 

 

This post is based on the preaching of Ptr. Christian Flores at Victory Christian Fellowship.