Why God Delays

Introduction

We live in an instant gratification culture.

When we put our money in the soda machine, we expect to get our soda immediately.

If the line in the drive through is taking more than five minutes, we pull out and go somewhere else.

Young people cannot wait to be physical with their boyfriend until they get married.

We want everything now and if it doesn’t come when we want it, something is wrong. Maybe we throw our own little fits by just checking out, or getting angry and bitter about it. We drop out of even trying if we aren’t going to see immediate results. How often has our prayer lives been effected by this very same feeling?

We have prayed to God for a certain need or request and it seems like nothing is changing. We get tired of praying night after night, morning after morning for the same things; so we move on. The bible is full of commands to persevere, to endure, to be steadfast, but we get tired of the waiting. Our faith grows weak in those moments and we quite. When you think about it our faith is often defective in some way:

is often impatient- We can trust as long as it doesn’t take a week or more to get an answer.

inconsistent- When we are on a spiritual high, it is easy to trust God, but down in the valley is another story.

Doesn’t draw its strength from the promises of God- Sometimes our faith tries to draw its strength from our own thinking or our own spiritual strength; rather, than from the promises of God.

is built on what we see- Sometimes we can only believe what makes sense to us. We don’t see a way forward so we give up trusting God.

not specific- Sometimes our faith is merely in these nebulous promises of God, but we have never made them to specifically apply to our lives.

God’s primary work in our lives is to transform us into the image of Christ. Sometimes that means that God won’t answer our prayer in the way we want them answered or at the times that we want them answered. There are certain things that God has promised to do and we must remember 1 Thessalonians 5:24 “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” God will do those things that He has promised to do, but we may not always know why He delays.

Andrew Grey in his book The Great and Precious Promises gave seven reason’s why God delays. I added one more, but I want us to meditate on this question tonight: Why doesn’t God answer my prayers right now? He could do so because nothing is impossible, so why does God delay?

Sometimes God delays because we grow more during times of waiting

Genesis 32:24–30 “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

How often do we pray an entire night long? I think we look at things like that and think it is only for the super spiritual like George Mueller or Jonathan Edwards. Which reminds me of a point, if the super spiritual as we call them did these things, why wouldn’t we want to be like them. These were men who moved Nations and saw God work. Mueller saw miraculous answers to prayer, Edwards spurred on a national revival.

It is in those moments of waiting and wrestling that we often see the most growth in our lives.

Take for example the way we raise our kids. If my kids want a brand new ipad, I probably could go and buy them one and give it to them. They would enjoy it and it would make me happy to give it to them, but I miss out on an opportunity. What if my kids came to me and said they wanted an ipad and so I told them OK we are both going to save up and get you an ipad. I have now taken an opportunity to teach my kids a lesson about working, saving and earning the ipad. My job as a parent isn’t merely to make my kids happy; my job as a parent is to teach and train them for life.

Jacob needed to wrestle with God. He needed to wrestle through the night before God blessed Him. In doing so, Jacob grew in ways he couldn’t have without the waiting and without the wrestling.

Sometimes God delays because he is working out sin in our lives

Hebrews 3:15–19 “While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”

I am not going to spend a whole lot of time on this point because it overlaps with next weeks message a little bit. But sometimes God doesn’t give us what we want when we want it because he is working on weeding out sin in our lives. Israel had an opportunity to go into the promised land, but they missed out on that opportunity because of unbelief. Have we ever missed out on something because of unbelief?

The author of Hebrews, challenges us not to be like Israel in the wilderness who hardened their hearts in unbelief. Israel wandered about in the desert for 40 years and God time after time tested their faith, but time after time they failed that test. They didn’t trust God.

Using another parenting illustration, imagine if you bought ice cream for your kids but then you go home and they were all fighting and misbehaving. Do you give them the ice cream right then and there? Wouldn’t giving them the ice cream be rewarding their bad behavior. Now God shows mercy, but do you think God might withhold some blessings in our lives because of sin?

Sometimes God delays to grow our faith

This is related to the first point, but it is more specific. God wants to grow our trust in him, our faith. This week I began studying the book of Habakkuk. It was very interesting and I wish I could make a whole message on just this passage, but lets focus just on:

Habakkuk 2:1–4 “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, And will watch to see what he will say unto me, And what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, That he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, But at the end it shall speak, and not lie: Though it tarry, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: But the just shall live by his faith.”

Chapter one of the book, is Habakkuk questioning God. He questions why God doesn’t seem to be listening, why God hasn’t punished the evil doers and why Israel’s punishment is seemingly worse than Babylon’s. But in his dialogue with God, he never looses faith. God answers those questions with vs 1-4. The essence of the answer is that God is going to faithfully fulfill his promises to Israel but they are going to have to wait. Notice the phrases for an appointed time, tarry, wait. The answer to Habakkuk’s prayer would not have an instantaneous solution. But notice vs 4. Because they are going to have to wait the just shall love by faith. The waiting, the tarrying are meant to cause us to have to depend on our faith more and more.

This concept is also taught in James 1 when it talks about trials.

James 1:3 “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”

As your faith is tried, it produces an enduring faith. All of us are on a spectrum of how much faith we have. Some people trust God implicitly, others struggle through but still trust while others fail to trust all together. Jesus spoke of this when he referenced those of no faith, little faith and great faith. The delay can move us from little faith to great faith.

Sometimes God delays to encourages us to pray more earnestly

Luke 18:1–8 “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

With the parables you have to ask why they were spoken before you can begin to even try to understand their meaning. Fortunately with this parable, we are told exactly why Jesus spoke these words. Vs 1 says to this end. That little phrase means for this purpose or to teach this lesson. What was the lessons that men ought always to pray and not to faith. Like this women, we may not feel like God is answering our prayers. It is in those moments we should pray more not less. Continue praying and don’t faith. Don’t get weary and quite. The woman didn’t become discouraged and quite praying rather she kept going to him over and over again. God is not like that judge in one way he cares about our requests. Though an answer seems to take awhile God is eager to answer.

Pray more fervently. James 5:17 “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.”

Sometimes God delays to makes the fulfillment sweeter

Proverbs 13:12 “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”

If everything were easy in life, we wouldn’t appreciate the joys of life. Prov 13:12 teaches that having to wait is hard. Hope deferred or put off makes us feel sick to the heart.

Have you ever had something you really looked forward to and then all of a sudden you had to postpone. Maybe it was a planned family vacation to Galvaston, but then the car breaks down and you have to put it off. We have all been there. We have all felt that sinking feeling in our heart when we have to wait a little longer.

But when the moment comes that we get to go, there is even more joy, excitement than before. The idea of the tree of life refers to the renewal of life. As long as man could eat of the tree of life they would not die. Life was renewed. Enjoying after a delay the fruits of your waiting is like having new life breathed into you. Proverbs 13:19 “The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: But it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.”

When our desires find their fulfillment their is sweetness. A little bit of a wait maximizes the enjoyment of the thing.

Sometimes God delays so that we become more dependent on Him

2 Corinthians 1:8–9 “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:”

Paul faced a lot of troubles. We know that the christian life culminates in eternity with God in his presence where their is fulness of joy forever more, but now; we go through trials and tribulations. Why is it that God doesn’t just deliver us all from these trials immediately? Why delay? Paul says that the delay causes us to learn not to trust in ourselves. It drives us to our knees to trust God. We realize how impossible it really is for us to fix this problem. Andrew Grey in his book says:

Living by God’s Promises

Would you know what brings a Christian oftenest to God?… It is a principle of necessity; and believe it, that if necessity did not drive a Christian unto the foot of the throne, he would seldom go from a principle of love, or from a principle of faith.

We are less likely to go to God when everything is perfect. But when things start to go wrong we begin to look for help.

Its kinda like the owner operator at CFA. As long as the numbers are good, sales are up, speed in DT is good, Customer service ratings are high; we hardly ever see him, but as soon as things start to dip; he shows us.

We are often like that with God. Sometimes it takes a trial for us to depend on Him. Sometimes waiting pushes us to prayer more than joy.

Sometimes God delays so we can see His wisdom, and power

Proverbs 3:5–6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall direct thy paths.”

We often struggle with leaning on our own understanding. We think we know how God should answer our prayers and when. After all it just makes sense! But sometimes God delays because we need to see his wisdom.

I’ll be honest with you. I did not enjoy the trial I went through when my first fiancee broke up with me. I prayed God would bring her back and then I prayed that God would remove the pain. He didn’t do either of those things. You see if I had had my way it wouldn’t have been good for me. From what I can tell that girl has been divorced since then and who knows what could have happened.

But this I do know, God allowed me to go through that trial so I would meet Katy. God allowed me to go through that trial to weed out sin in my life. God allowed me to go through that trial so I could comfort others in the same situation. I didn’t see it then, but God’s delay in helping me overcome the pain was the wisest thing he could have done.

Really God is not delaying at all, He is doing it in His time. Isaiah 60:22 “A little one shall become a thousand, And a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.”

Sometimes God delays because it is not His will right

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

What I want to point out in this story is that so far as we know, God never removed the thorn in Paul’s flesh. It wasn’t His will. Sometimes God doesn’t answer because it isn’t His will and we have to wrestle with that. This is where the lordship of Christ becomes so important. If God says No can we live with that.

Sometimes we act like children who want to go play at the playground and Mom says No its too hot right now. We throw a pity party, a tantrum. We stop enjoying all the other things we can do just because we were told No one time.

God’s delay might just be a No answer. Can you live with that? If you can’t, can you really say He is God and has the right to do as He pleases. Aren’t you really saying, you ought to be able to make these decisions for yourself?

Conclusion

It isn’t easy to accept the Lordship of Christ when God delays answering our prayers, but it does help to know why he might be delaying. Its kinda like a wife who has dinner ready on the table and her husband calls to tell her that he got a flat tire on the way home, he’ll be late. It is inconvenient but she understands.

God doesn’t necessarily owe us any answers for why he delays because he is God, but in his mercy, God has revealed these eight reasons why he might be delaying answering our prayers. And knowing why makes it just a little bit easier to wait, to trust a little bit longer. Is this not part of what it means to

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.”

Romans 12:12 “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;”

I want to leave you with an encouragement that God has his reason’s. He is faithful, wise and just. I know its hard to trust when we wait, but He is worthy of that.