When you have a difficulty or a struggle, what do you usually do? For many who profess to be Christians, the usual answer would be, “Of course, I pray to God!” But what if your situation is really bleak and hopeless?
Again, the usual answer to this question would be the same, probably more intense and with firm conviction. You may already be giving God a deadline. “Lord, if you do not answer, I will be ruined!”, or “Lord, if you do not give me a response, I will be forced to take matters into my own hands.” Typical. I don’t mean that word in a negative sense. Its just a natural reaction.
The “unnatural ” way would be to continue to wait in deep expectation and trust, without the complaining and the grumbling. Just a firm belief in God’s sovereign will AND perfect timing.
As we may all be way too familiar, the chosen people of God, the Israelites, were enslaved by a Pharaoh of Egypt who was greatly threatened by the great number of Hebrews in the land. For many, many years and tears, the Hebrews did hard labor for the Egyptians. The Bible says the slave drivers were without mercy and pushed them hard.
You may be in this kind of situation too! Desperate, exhausted, miserable. You moan and groan to God but there is no answer. Remember, the Israelites were in slavery for a very long time. Their children were killed. Properties taken away. Did great and menial labor. That was hard! I can’t imagine a life like that.
Then Exodus 2:25 says this, “He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.”
God allowed His chosen people hardships and difficulties so that they will call on Him. For a long time, they flourished when Joseph, yes, the dreamer, was the governor of Egypt. Maybe too flourishing that the Egyptians became jealous and hated them. But God remembered the Israelites and the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God knew it was time to act, and the rest as we all say, is history.
You maybe a victim of such circumstance, probably not the same, but equally hard, both emotionally and physically. God may allow these things to happen and prolong it. These things don’t happen just because God wants to. They all happen for a reason. A good reason. And all events unfold in God’s perfect timing so that in the end we can give Him the glory.
