I Am Not in a Hurry

Continuing series Walking with God...

Let’s begin by saying the The Pilgrim’s Credo together.

I am not in control.

I am not in a hurry.

I walk in faith and hope.

I greet everyone with peace.

I bring back only what God gives me.

Today will focus on “I am not in a hurry”.

Tell about circumstances leading to staying at Slayley - The Rose and Crown. Charming is best word to describe (pic). Sat outside in a beautiful, quiet setting (pic). Best food of entire trip (pics). This king of food can’t be microwaved. It must be cooked for hours.

This is true of the best things in life. We will miss the richness of life if we hurry, and in many ways find that we’ve missed the point entirely. Busyness is the enemy of the soul. Corrie ten Boom, the great Dutch author and holocaust survivor said, “If the devil can’t make you sin, he will make you busy.”

Busyness is our enemy bc it keeps us distracted. It’s our enemy bc we want to impose our pace, our schedule on God. When God doesn’t move at our pace, we become bitter. We begin to doubt his love, presence, and existence. Busyness keeps us from enjoying meaningful relationship with the Father - the very thing you were created for.

God is not in a hurry. Like the wizard Gandalf, he is never late, never early, but arrives precisely when he means to.

The Japanese theologian, Kosuke Koyama, in his book Three Mile an Hour God writes, “God walks ‘slowly’ because he is love. If he is not love he would move much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It is 'slow' and yet it is lord over all the other speeds since it is the speed of love. It goes on in the depths of our life whether we notice it or not.”

God moves at the speed of love. He is not a microwave; he’s a slow cooker. Most of what he wants to do in our hearts and life takes time. The great task for us is to yield to God’s pace and learn to walk slowly with the God who is not in a hurry.

I want to look at the story of the death of Lazarus. It is a long chapter so we will just look at parts and I’ll fill in the blanks.

John 11:1-6 “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”

Martha and Mary sent for Jesus in the hope that he would hurry. This is reasonable. They were great friends. They opened their home often to Jesus and his disciples. ‬‬Their expectation is that Jesus will come along immediately. They want him to move at their pace.

Except he doesn’t. While he understands their situation perfectly, he is not in a hurry. Something they and we have to learn is that God is not an algorithm. You can’t plug in the right inputs to get a quicker answer. “God’s ‘suddenly’ still takes a long time.” 

It might be good to reflect for just a moment about how you try to influence God to move at your pace?

From our perspective this makes no sense. If Jesus knows and can do something about the problem, why does he not act now?! While we can’t always know the answer to that, we can have certainty that God’s timing is always motivated by his love. Jesus’ slowness is not an indicator of his love for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. His slowness is motivated BY his love.“

Where does God seem to be moving slowly in your life. Right now could you believe that his pace is motivated by radical love for you?

John 11:14-15 “Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.””

It was for the disciples sake that Jesus was not there. His apparent slowness was in order to build faith in his character.

Our growth in faith is a slow walk. Discipleship takes time. It can’t be microwaved in us. Learning to trust God’s character even when you can’t see or don’t understand his seeming inactivity is the work of a lifetime.

What is a situation in your life where God is calling you to greater trust in his character?

John 11:37 “But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?””

One thing we must be on guard against when moving at God’s speed is the voice of the accuser. We will be tempted to suspect God’s love and motivation.

This is true of our own inner thoughts toward God, but it will be equally true of the accusations of others who can’t understand why you refuse to live at their pace.

Where have you been accusing God for his slowness? Take a moment to repent to the One who is slow for your sake.

Where do you feel the pull to do life at an unsustainable pace? Yield that situation to the Lord and rest in his ability to sustain the world without your help.

Maybe accusations against God have kept you from fully submitting your life to him and becoming his beloved child. The Bible says in Romans 5:6 “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” At just the right time he came to take the consequence for all our sin. He died in our place, and he rose from the dead conquering death on our behalf. He has done all of this - including the timing - because of his great love for you. Would you open yourself to receive his cleansing love this morning? (next steps graphic)

John 11:38-40 “Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?””

God’s slowness is so that we may see his glory manifest in our lives. His pace is for our good, motivated by love. God is cooking things for you and in you that take time. Yet, there is the promise that if you would believe you WILL SEE the glory of God.

To believe is a call to the slowness of persevering faith. To trust that even when you cannot see his actions you trust his hand.

Over what situation is God asking you to yield to his pace and walk in slow, persevering faith?

There are things you will never notice rushing through life. You will miss things in the natural that God wants to show you, things like trees and flowers and butterflies. The rock beside the sidewalk might be the way God wants to reveal himself to you.

But you risk also missing things in the spiritual. God is not often found in the big flashy moments but in the still small voice. He is the One who tells us to “be still and know that I am God”.

Stillness and quietness before the Lord is how we learn walk at his pace. It does not mean inactivity. It means not hurrying. While it is necessary to at times practice physical stillness, genuine stillness is more a disposition or attitude. Even in the course of our regular day we can “be still and know that he is God”.

Stillness takes practice. Centering prayer resource.

Some of you been waiting a long time for God to act. And in the waiting you have become weary. I’m not going to stand before you this morning and give you a false message that God is about to act - he may very well be. What I want to say from the Lord is that he is already acting. I’d like to minister this morning specifically to those of you who become weary, waiting on the promises of God.