For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
Habakkuk 2:3
Though it linger. It will not delay
Such a strange antithetical notion. Two seemingly contradictory ideas folded in against one another. What is actually occurring here is that God’s notion of timing and ours are set against each other in a bid to have us recognize the falsehood of our own expectations and impatience.
For the miracle is so often in the wait. A significant portion of the things that God has promised and planned for us do not happen in the instant, they happen in the wait; the distance between the receipt of the message and the delivery of the promise. If we abandon the wait and change courses without direction from the Lord it is not at all certain that we will be where we should be at the appointed time.
The upper room after Jesus ascension should be sobering reminder of this truth. Up to Five hundred see Jesus ascend and yet ten days later there are only 120 in the upper room when the Holy Spirit descends like fire. No doubt all those that were absent were absent for “good reason”, as happens to all of us at times. But the seeming sufficiency of the reason cannot change the fact that they missed the miracle, the revelation, the word and promise spoken of by Jesus.
That upper room should also serve as a reminder that wait in this context is not a passive term. It is a setting and maintaining of expectation. It is a commitment to do what one must in the interim to hold fast to the promise set before us. They are waiting where they were told, they are believing that something (though they are yet to understand what) is about to happen, and they are praying. They are active in the wait, in the pursuit of the promise.
Your promises from God. It’s certainty is undeniable. It will not delay. It’s holy timing is set.
Today church on the penultimate day of our 21 days of prayer let’s set our hearts boldly towards the promises God has laid out over this time, and commit ourselves to seeing them come to pass in the perfection of God’s timing. Let’s pray that we will not grow faint or abandon the promise before its fruition. That we will be in the perfect place at the perfect time with the right attitude seeing the Glory of God revealed in our lives!
Praying for you church!
Stephen