God's delay...

    Gail, an associate pastor, was actively involved in ministry overseeing the church’s food pantry and leading global missions trips. One day, after helping unload one of their trucks, she jumped down from the truck and damaged her right knee. When she visited the doctor, she was advised to use hot and cold packs. She did not want to undergo surgery so, for the next ten years, she was content to use over-the-counter drugs and a knee brace. This enabled her to continue her volunteer work at the church even though it took her a longer time to get things done. 
    Gail continued praying for healing so that she could continue doing what she wanted to do for the Lord. By the end of 2022, at the age of 81, Gail accepted her situation, believing that things might not change. She was getting older and decided that she would have to live with it especially since she had asked God a number of times for healing and she had not been healed. 
    On the night of December 30th of that same year, she returned home exhausted from a full day at the church. She was watching christian television when she heard a word of knowledge about someone with problems with their right knee. She believed that she was that person and began moving about, as instructed, doing what she could not do before. The pain was gone! She began praising the Lord thanking Him for healing her. 
    Six months later, she went to the Middle East on vacation. They had to do a lot of walking and she believed that she would not have been able to do that much walking if God had not healed her. God had healed her just in time for that trip! The delay in her healing meant more to her because had God healed her the first time she prayed for it, she would not have kept on praying and believing. 
    What I like about this story is that God is not hindered by our age or time. We may be concerned with the fact that we are getting older and we may wonder when God is going to fulfil certain things in our life. Gail’s testimony, is a reminder that once we are alive, and no matter what age we are, God is able to do great things in and through us. It may take a few minutes to get some things done or it may take many years but God’s timing is not ours. For Him, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day (2 Peter 3:8). His Word also says: “At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen” (Isaiah 60:22). 
    Furthermore, as much as we don’t like delay, what may seem like a delay to us, God sees it as perfect timing. The things that He is teaching us while we wait may be even more important to Him than giving us what we ask for when we ask for it. With God, there will always be a bigger picture.
    It’s about trusting God, trusting that He knows what is best, trusting that He has our back and that He will never do anything to intentionally harm or discourage us. If we have to go through our situation longer than we had hoped, He will give us the grace and strength needed to make it through. We can still have hope, we can still be encouraged, we can certainly still have peace, even though things are not what we would like them to be according to our timing. God will never leave us in a situation uncovered.
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. We all have set times for when we would like certain things to take place. Yet, in God’s perfect timing, everything will fall into place exactly as they should and when they should. God is never late, His timing is always perfect and He is quite able to use what we see as a delay, to do beautiful things in and through us. Be encouraged!

---