Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 16:9, “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” The Message Bible says, “There is also mushrooming opposition.” He went on to say in 1 Thess. 3:3,4 “that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know.”
When you rise up and set your heart like flint to fulfill the call of God on your life, then you can be certain opposition will come. The Lord said this about the apostle Paul, “…he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My Name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My Name’s sake.”
All this opposition should not cause you to give up and walk away but instead to rise up with a holy determination to do that which the Lord wants you to do. Even Paul said in Phil. 3:7-9a, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…”
How did Paul respond to all the trials and opposition in his life? Vs. 13b-15a says, “but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind…”
What did Paul do? He pressed on! He never gave up and he kept going forward. He then told those who are mature to do the same thing. In Phil. 4:1 he said to “stand fast in the Lord.” This means you never give up in the face of opposition. Remember, being a servant of God is not for the weak-hearted and it is only those who finish the race that receive the prize.
Ps. 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” God tells us “what” He is going to do in our lives but rarely does He tell us “when” He’s going to do it. Why is this so? It’s because He wants us to keep pressing on.
If He told us the answer was soon forth-coming we’d be tempted to slack off in our good fight of faith and if He revealed we’d be in this season of affliction for a long time to come we may get discouraged and quit. Not knowing “when” the breakthrough will come keeps hope alive and Heb. 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith is our handle on what we can’t see and vs. 6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. David wrote in Ps. 31:14,15, “But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.”
He told God “what” he wanted - deliverance from his enemies - but he left the decision of “when” this would happen in the hands of God. He said, “My times are in Your hand.” We must accept God’s timing to have peace. Without peace, there is no joy. Without joy, there is no strength. Without strength, there is no breakthrough.
Let’s face it, everybody waits. Waiting is a fact of life and we’re all going to do it. Moses waited 40 years on the backside of the desert, Caleb waited 45 years to get his mountain, Abraham waited 25 years for the birth of Isaac, Joseph waited 14 years for the fulfillment of his dream, and David ran and hid from the evil King Saul for 13 years as he waited to be made king over all of Israel. Job, Ruth, and Esther all waited on God to move in their lives. Even today Jesus is waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool.
As you can see, everybody waits. If the truth be told, we spend more time waiting than we do receiving. For the rest of our lives we’ll have to deal with things for which we’ll be required to wait. Like it or not, this is the lifestyle we are all required to live. We are always going to have to wait for something so we better get used to it.
So, we can do it the right way or we can do it the wrong way. Either way, we’re still going to have to wait. If you do it the wrong way you’re going to be miserable and if you do it the right way you’ll live a happy, victorious life. Yes, good things come to those who wait properly.
The Bible says that it is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises of God (Heb. 6:12) which, of course, includes our much needed breakthrough. Patience is so important that God is called in Rom. 15:5 “the God of patience and comfort.” Notice that when you wait properly your life will be filled with comfort.
Understand that patience is not the ability to wait. It’s how you act while you wait. It’s an attitude of hope and expectancy and it grows only under trial. God determines the timing of things in our life and we chose the attitude. We all need to wait on God with a good attitude.
As you endure the trials of life with a good attitude patience is given and developed. The more you wait the better your patience will be. James 1:4 says, “But let patience have it’s perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” That’s a powerful promise! The Message Bible says, “So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do it’s work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”
We read in vs. 12, “Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.” Wait with a good attitude and don’t murmur and complain. You don’t have patience if you have a bad attitude. We should not shun patience but instead should embrace it as if it were our best friend.
Jesus said, “In your patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19). One way to possess your soul is to understand that God is different from us. He sees things and does things in a way that is different from our choosing and understanding. Is. 55:8,9 says “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways’, says the Lord.. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”
God made us in His image but since the fall in the Garden of Eden man has set out to do things his own way. As evidenced in scripture and each of our own private lives, things almost never turn out the way we want then to when we get stubborn and insist on doing things according to how we want them done.
Frank Sinatra glorified this thought pattern by singing, “The record shows…I took the blows…I did it my way.” He was right about one thing. When you push God out of your life you will definitely take the blows and will eventually succumb to the pressures of life and fall flat on your face.
Thankfully God, in His infinite mercy, sent Jesus to earth for the purpose of getting man back on track and in line with God’s perfect will. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus set the example for all of us to follow when He prayed “…nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42b). In the Lord’s prayer Jesus taught us to pray to the Father and say, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
Later in the same chapter He tells us what we must do in order to transfer the priority of doing things our way to the submissive action of allowing God to have His way in our lives. Matt. 6:33a says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” What does it mean to “seek first the kingdom of God”? It means to seek God’s way of doing things. Remember, His ways are above our ways.
There are certain things involved with Christian growth and development that if not understood can cause a believer to get discouraged and walk away from their faith. One of these areas is the subject of time. 2 Peter 3:8 says, “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.”
Notice the importance Peter puts on us learning this concept. He says “do not forget this one thing…” What he is saying must therefore be important. A similar passage of scripture is found in Ps. 90:4, “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past and like a watch in the night.” These scriptures verify that God does not see time in the same light as people do.
For example, in Rev. 22:7a Jesus said, “Behold, I am coming quickly!” This was spoken two thousand years ago and Jesus calls this time frame “quickly”.
Here is another example. After the rapture of the church all believers will attend a reward ceremony called “the Marriage Supper of the Lamb” which will take place during the seven year tribulation period on earth. The deeds of all believers will be reviewed at this time and rewards will be given out for service done unto the Lord during one’s lifetime.
It has been estimated that if each believer stood before the Lord for only one minute this ceremony would still take thousands of years to complete. But in time as we know it the event will take place in seven short years.
These scriptures make it clear that what time means to God and what it means to people are as opposite as night and day.. It would benefit us all to search the scriptures and seek out God’s way of measuring time and apply the same principle to our every day lives.
Man measures his existence on planet earth in quantities of time commonly known as seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries and millenniums whereas God measures time in seasons. Eccl. 3:1 says, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”
Webster’s dictionary defines “season” as ‘a time characterized by a particular circumstance or feature.” A season also has a beginning and an end. In nature there are four seasons that we go through in a calendar year. There is winter, spring, summer and fall. Each one has particular features and different characteristics from the others but it is important that we go through each and every season.
Likewise, in the realm of the Spirit it is also important that we experience all of God’s seasons and go through the different things we go through so that we develop and grow and mature properly in the things of God. Some things just don’t happen instantly in the Christian life.
Christian maturity is developed and not received and this takes time. Yes, you do receive the fruit of the Spirit when you get born-again but none of these qualities begin to operate fully and automatically when you get saved. These are developed and this takes time. It takes growth and this is a process.
Any farmer will testify that in order to receive a crop from his efforts the seeds he sows must go through a planting season, a watering season, a growth and development season, and finally there is the harvest season. All these seasons have different characteristics and features that surround the different stages of growth that the plant is in.
A full-grown plant doesn’t mature instantly therefore it is vitally important for that plant to go through each and every season in it’s growth and development. It is the same way with those in the body of Christ. 2 Cor. 6:2 tells us, “For He says, ‘In an acceptable time I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
There was a time when people could not get born-again because Jesus had not come to earth yet. There was a time for Jesus to come, a season for Him to walk the earth. Thankfully, now is the time. Today is the day of salvation. You can get saved now, healed now, and delivered now. At the same time we are told in Phil. 2:12b to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
The Word must be planted and given time to grow. Since God is a “now” God people think that if the answer to their prayer is not manifested immediately then something is wrong. This is not necessarily so. There is a process of time involved in walking in the things of God. The Bible says it is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises of God (Heb. 6:12).
Patience is a vital ingredient in the walk of faith and is only developed by remaining strong and steadfast in the season of tests and trials (James 1:2-4). If things are not going right for you at this time then you can rejoice knowing that your time of trial is but for a season. And don’t forget, every season has a beginning and an end. With confidence you can look at your problem and say, “This, too, shall pass.”
With every Godly principle that you try to inhabit into your life comes with it a season of testing and growth. God will take you through different seasons that will have particular features designed to change your life into His image. Learn to recognize the seasons in your spiritual life. Many times you’ll grow rapidly but other times you’ll go through a longer period of stabilizing and growth.
With God a delay is not a denial. When He wants to make a mushroom He does it overnight but when He wants to make a giant oak tree He takes a hundred years. The best things in life take time. You gave your life to God, now give Him your time also. Pray as the psalmist did in Ps. 31:15a, “My times are in your hand…” Then stand back and watch the blessings come.
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