But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2 Peter 3:8

 

I don’t know if UPS has adopted this verse as their mission statement, but the last three packages I received were past the scheduled delivery date. This left for one past due gift and a lot of frustration on my part as I wait for the items I ordered. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Once you hit the “purchase” button, its completely out of your hands.

 

As Christians, we put in our prayer request and expect a relatively quick response from the Lord. But, that doesn’t always happen the way we wish. God is on a different time table than we have on planet earth. I can assure you though, His timing is always perfect. His delayed response does several things for us:

 

It teaches us patience. “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:4 The wait time develops character as we wait upon the Lord’s response. Good things don’t happen right away, they take time to develop and grow. Your faith and trust in the Lord doesn’t just grow over night. It takes time, but on the other end of that long timeline is delivery of God’s promise to take care of us and meet our needs according to His will.

 

Teaches us to trust Him. I think back a number of years ago when my mom wanted to sell her house and move into town to be close to her mom. The house sat on the market for over a year and we all wondered if it would sell. One day mom had an offer and at the same time a beautiful home came up for sale just one block away from my grandmother’s house. God’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Believe me when I say, God hears your prayers. Once received, HE puts a delivery date on it, so you’ve simply got to trust His timing to be the best for your situation.

 

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17  Friend, whatever you have lifted up to the Lord in prayer, trust in His timing and allow the wait to develop your faith,  knowing His timing is best. God bless!