August 26
Why Is God So Slow? CHARISMA
MAGAZINE
Are you tired of waiting on God? Have you been saying, "I've waited long
enough?"
Waiting on God to act can truly be
one of the worst things we have ever done. One of the most exasperating aspects of God is
His slowness to step in on our behalf. But the more we get to know Him, the more we
see that His slowness is not such a bad thing after all; it is for our good.
What if you could ask for anything
you honestly want?
Have you ever fantasized that God
might come to you as He did to Moses and ask you what you want Him to do for
you? What if He did come to you and
invited you to ask for anything you like? What do you suppose you would ask for? And what if there were no conditions —that is,
you need not ask for what is noble, altruistic or even God-honoring—that it
could even be a selfish request?
You simply have an opportunity to
ask for one thing and it will be answered.
What would you request?
God had let Moses know He was
pleased with him: "You have found favor with Me," the Lord said to
him.
Moses seized the moment and replied
to God, "If I have found favor in Your sight, show me now Your way,
that I may know You." Exodus 33:13
One of the things Moses learned
about God's ways is His slowness to act.
Moses was arguably the greatest
leader of men in human history. He might
have asked for any number of things—vengeance on His enemies, for example. But the truth of his heart surfaced: Moses
wanted to know God's ways. This convicts
me. I ask: Would I want to know God's
ways above any other request?
I will admit to you that Moses's
request puts me to shame. I cannot
remember asking that of God. I certainly
have asked for a lot of other things.
I want to finish well. I would have thought that the safest guarantee
that one will finish well is to make Moses's request—to know God's ways—your
true desire.
The apostle Paul's supreme wish was
the same—"to know Him," that is, Jesus Christ, Philippians 3:10.
You may want to ask, "Paul, are
you saying you don't know the Lord?"
Of course Paul knew the Lord. But
his deepest longing was to know Christ better. That is what he meant by the words, "to
know Him."
I have learned this: The better you get to know God, the more you
want to know Him. The more you know Him,
the more you are in awe of Him. The more
you know Him, the more you want to spend time with Him. The more you spend time with Him, the more you
feel you need him.
The best way to get to know anybody
is to spend time with them. So, too,
when it comes to knowing God.
Moses frequented what was called the
tent of meeting. It was there that the
Lord spoke to Moses, "face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend,"
Exodus 33:11. It was in the tent of
meeting that Moses put his request to the Lord—that he might know God's ways.
God lamented that ancient Israel did
not know His ways in Hebrews 3:10. God wants us to know His ways, but we must
be prepared for this: His ways are
different from our ways, as we are told in Isaiah 55:8-9.
What if we don't like God's ways?
One of God's ways is His slowness,
"With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are
like a day" II Peter 3:8. Time is
His domain. He is in no hurry. But we are. God can—to us—seem so slow.
Yet God can act so quickly when He
chooses. Once Jesus was born, suddenly,
a great company of heavenly host appeared with the angel (see Luke 2:13-14),
and after waiting hundreds of years for Joel's prophecy to be fulfilled,
suddenly a sound of a violent wind came from heaven (Acts 2:1-2) when the Holy
Spirit finally fell upon believers.
So why is God slow in making things
happen? He tells us why. We may or may not like the reason: that He
might gain greater glory. The God
of the Bible is a God of glory (see Acts 7:1-2).
Whatever He does, it is for His
glory. The longer He waits, the greater
the glory. But it also means greater the
reward and greater the joy for us.
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