We have ten-minute oil changes, five-minute microwave popcorn three-minute ATM transactions, and one-minute news breaks. Fast food has to be ready when we place our order, or we begin to get impatient. Any line longer than two people is intolerable. Customer service representatives often hear, “I want it yesterday!” We feel so pressured to have it all and do it all that we don’t want to wait for anything. Instantly is too slow!
Often we’re impatient even when we pray. If the answer isn’t on our doorstep within a day or two we give up or conclude that God hasn’t heard us. Our faith is far less sturdy than that of the psalmist who declared, “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him (Psalm 37:7)
Compare our “instant” mind-set with God’s eternal perspective.
Noah had to wait a long time before he saw God act. From the time Noah was given the promise concerning the flood, until the rain began to fall, perhaps as many as one hundred and twenty years had elapsed (compare Genesis 5:32; 6:3 and 7:6). From the time the rain started until his family left the ark, Noah waited another year inside the closed ark (compare Genesis 7:11 and 8:14).
As Noah waited those many years for the first raindrops to fall, it’s very likely he was subject to times of doubt. But he remained obedient to all God had told him (Genesis 7:5). God had promised, and Noah took him at his word. It was not a matter of if, but when Noah wasn’t the only one who waited. Abraham waited twenty five years for his promised son to be born. The people of lsrael waited for centuries for the promised Messiah. And the church of Jesus Christ has been waiting two thousand years for his second coming.
What answers to prayer are you waiting for? Does God seem to take intolerably long to show you that he has heard? Don’t give up.
God will answer in his perfect timing. “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Hebrews10:36)
A Deeper Look
Psalm 38:15, Luke 18.1, Romans 8:25