Why Not Now?

"Sometimes, healing takes time, sometimes the fullness of His blessing comes later ... because of us."

A BROKEN GLASS does not hold water. A cracked plate is not safe to eat on. You can’t plant a saguaro cactus in the swamp nor a bald cypress tree in the desert. Do not expect a seven-year-old to take in a college lecture and write a thesis.

God is merciful. Jesus died for whosoever. He is man’s Savior, Healer, Lord, and King. But the Lion of Judah is also the Lamb of God. He is the Alpha and Omega of Revelation with fire in His eyes, and the gentle Son of God who raised a twelve-year-old girl from the dead.

We are like a bull in a china shop when it comes to answered prayer. We come to God, seeking, then when it doesn’t immediately manifest, grow angry and frustrated. Or depressed. We question God’s timing, knowing patience is part of our wait in faith, but from our perspective, there’s no reason for things to take so long. We see others hurting and wonder why God doesn’t just “do something.”

You can’t boil soup in a colander. Nor pound nails into concrete by hand. A young pine sapling won’t hold a tree house nor does the spot beneath a grand old oak make a good place to dig a swimming pool.

Speaking from my own past, you can’t expect someone struggling with fear to overcome it overnight. I needed people to understand my limitations and encourage me forward. Someone who has been through a tough physical battle will have shortcomings as they build their strength. A child cannot be handed the keys to the family business and expected to keep it running. Some growth is required.

Jesus is the Word, who knows the thoughts and intents of our heart. Psalm 139 says He knows when we sit down and when we stand up. But though He longs to do all we need, and is full of generous grace, often, what He wants to do for us, He cannot because we aren’t strong enough for it. Strong enough mentally. Strong enough spiritually. We aren’t mature in our faith or do not have the correct knowledge for the future He has planned for us. It isn’t that He is holding back, and He never, ever uses sickness and disease to teach us anything, but just as that broken glass won’t hold water, a man weakened by a tough physical battle, or a woman who is exhausted from difficult circumstances, cannot hold onto all of the answer. Someone who hasn’t accept Christ as Savior and Lord is not able to comprehend spiritual things. What He can do for them in that spiritual state is limited by their unbelief.

“…but it is God who causes the truth to grow and bring forth fruit of a Christlike character. It is God who heals; it is God who restores.” (1 Corinthians 3:6)

Minister Mario Murillo tells how in the days of the Jesus People movement, men and women would come to salvation and go home to their same lifestyle. They’d return to the drugs and alcohol they’d gotten used to. Yet over time, through their faithfulness to their new life in Christ, the Holy Spirit would change their thinking, and they’d wake up, one day, and realize they didn’t want to do that anymore. It isn’t the church’s job to lecture those who are “infants in Christ” and to condemn them for what they haven’t learned yet, but we are to model God’s love and Presence. We show them Jesus.

God speaks to the young, to the weak, to men and women in the place they are at, and He knows what to teach them, what they will hear and take into their heart. He knows when they will refuse to listen or be unable to grasp a certain truth, and the best news is, He is exceedingly patient. Sometimes, healing takes time, sometimes the fullness of His blessing comes later … because of us. And it’s better, more favorable, when we submit to God and allow Him to guide us forward into His promises. The precious Holy Spirit is our teacher of the Scriptures. His work in us bears fruit, and fruit takes time to develop. We need to become like Christ. It is when we are like Him that our faith is strongest, and God’s best becomes ours.

“Therefore with all my heart I urge you, brothers and sisters, to consider how merciful God is in providing his Remedy, and to surrender your entire being to God as a living sacrifice—to be healed and transformed into God’s image. This is the most reasonable, logical and intelligent worship you could ever offer. Do not continue to practice the destructive methods of selfishness which infect the world, but be completely transformed into God’s image by the renewing of your mind. Then you will value God’s principles, practice his methods, and discern his will—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1-2 Remedy)

God is merciful. He has done for me what I did not ask Him to do at unexpected moments, and I adore Him for that. But there have been other things I needed to renew my mind over first. If He had given them to me when I was bitter and angry, it would have been wasted. A parent does not gift a troubled teenager an expensive automobile but corrects their behavior and disciplines them toward walking more as a responsible young adult first. What God can do for one person is not to be compared to what He does for another, except in what the Word of God itself promises us. Because my life is different from your life, and our personalities are not the same. Jesus knows us. The Spirit of God understands where we are at and how we got there. His timing takes into account the entirety of our lives, what we can see, what we understand, and most importantly, what we can’t and what we don’t.

We are to pray faithfully and to commit ourselves to growing in wisdom and revelation of Him. We are to pray for others who we see struggling. Our prayers will move them into the place they need to be to receive, whether that is in their thinking or in their situation at home or at work. Our prayers can change circumstances. But we turn the answering over to God and let Him have it all.

What He desires to give us will always be for our greatest benefit and will come at the best time, not a minute too early, and never too late, when we are at the point of maturity to receive it and do with it what will bless us the most. God heals today. He honors faith in His Word. He forgives and cleanses us of sin because of Jesus’ shed blood. But GOD is God, and part of faith in Him is trusting in Him and knowing He will do for us more than we could ever dream. Simply according to His gentle, kind timing, and not ours.

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29 BSB)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com