God’s timing is surprising; he usually seems late but always arrives just in time.
Dear Child of God, are things taking longer then you expected, are your prayers seemingly bouncing off the ceiling and the pain of following God more then you thought you could or would have to bear? I know it is, I stand in this wilderness with you as well as I wait for my prayers to come to pass as well and I want to tell you that this pain and time lost, is exactly what you need.
You don’t want to hear that, heck, I don’t wanna say it, but it is true because while we are God’s beloved treasures, his dearly loved children we are akin to gold just dug from the ground; we are dirty, rough and mixed with impurities that hold us back from being truly valuable. God mines us from this fallen world and as we know all of Heaven celebrates us being found but after that joyful victory there is much to do.
Gold needs to be put into the furnace, broken down and cleansed through fiery ordeal and then molded into a new thing and while for the gold this is an intense experience, afterwards it is now truly ready to be called treasure!
But don’t take my flowery metaphors for it, scripture is full of esteemed Believers who display this very thing!
Let us look at a person who was literally as close to Jesus as a person could get, Peter, the rock on which Jesus would build his church but the absolute joy he had in discovering Jesus was not the end, no, it was only the beginning because you cannot just grab a rock at random and build on it, it must be cut and repurposed from how you found it. We see this in Peter’s life when just before Jesus was crucified we read this interaction between Jesus and Peter…
“Simon, Simon! Indeed, satan has demanded to sift you all like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
But Simon said to Him, “Master, I am ready to go with You even to prison and to death!”
But Yeshua said, “I tell you, Peter, a rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” ~ Luke 22:31 TLV
We see many things here so lets break it down!
- We see Jesus clearly stating that Peter’s walk with him will include trials: It strikes me as so odd that we has believers seem to forget how clearly the Word of God warns us not to be surprised when trials and hardships befall us and yet somehow we always seem to be at least somewhat confused when they do and further more we seem to forget that God is assuring us he is on our side and actively helping us even before they come.
- God intends these things to not only strengthen us but others after we have passed through the trials: This is the first thing that Jesus instructs Peter to do meaning that MANY believers are going through hard and confusing times, as we grow and are strengthen by our ordeals we must pass on the wisdom and hope we have taken ahold of and pass it down the line so others can benefit from it as well so that perhaps we can serve as stable footing for those trying to find solid ground in their journey.
- Simon-Peter is clearly a great example of the common believer, he is passionate, confident….And brushes the idea of trials under the rug as if he is above such things: As I mentioned earlier, our zeal and conviction as followers of Christ often gets deluded by our human pride and confidence in ourselves and we ignore clear warnings and seem to believe ourselves invincible until we are knocked off our lofty perch. Yes, this is wrong of us but God does not see us humbled out of anger but love, Peter is warned you will “Sifted” not “Put in your place” one does not sifted wheat to destroy it but to get the best out of it after all.
- Jesus knows we will fail him, but he is already looking towards our redemption and not lingering over our failure: Again, let me remind you that Peter is as close to Jesus as one can get, they are dear friends, Master and Apprentice and have spent many, many months together on the road and the fact Jesus KNOWS Peter will deny him as Jesus goes to be tortured and killed is a massive betrayal perhaps even on par with Judas’s betrayal (At least on a personal level for the two.). Despite this however Jesus is already looking past it here and telling Peter what must be done once he has the wind back in his sails, this is because Jesus died for our sins, our failures and shortcomings, he has gotten rid of them and does not want to waste time on moments of forgiven failure but wants to move forward with us to our moments of growth and strength.
So there we see it.
God is not leaving us to die in the wilderness, he is not ignoring us and he has not forgotten us to time, pain and trials but is purifying us as we learn to wait in him and trust his process and timing so that we can learn to put our own visions and ideas of him and ourselves away and discover who God truly is and what it means to be a true child of God, to have faith that stands both in the days of ease and the torrent of trials.
As long as we seek God, learn to trust his timing despite how long the wait or how weary the trial has been we will, like Peter and the men and women before him, have the desire of our hearts, have all we need here on Earth and a bright endless future in the world to come.
Until next time, God bless Pact-Keepers!
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