Why Does God take so long

God sees the big picture but we only see little pieces, so we don't always understand why he allows certain things but he knows what he is doing. God didn't promise that hardships wouldn't come for believers, but he did promise to never leave us, so in everything you face he is always right there with you. God can do anything, so he could certainly intervene in situations or perform miracles. Sometimes he does intervene- but he has the ultimate plan, not us so we just have to trust him. Sometimes he allows hardships because he is shaping our character and strengthening our faith.

God's timing is always perfect, but usually we understand it later...after having blamed Him ( I do it myself).
If you start thanking God in everything, if you thank Him even in hardships, you will see them disappear soon.
Trust Him.

Dear SoapnWater. Whatever we ask God to do or not to do for us, will involve others as well. We also know that God does not force us, neither will God force others, and very often others are involved in what we want. God does not use force, but God is Love and God`s ways and means are achieved or even wrought, by Love and Compassion. I say this with love. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

SoapnWater said:

Why does God take so long in everything? I know this is a foolish question, that, "everything will happen in the fullness of its time". But why does God add hardship after hardship when He could easily do something unique for you, such as a miracle.

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Few thoughts....

1. Gods timetable is not our microwave-mentality timetable . His nature is not our impulsive, demanding, hurried nature of wanting things (particularly adversity) to end.

2. God has reasons for what occurs, that are beyond our understanding. Yet we can still trust that he knows best based on his Person and nature of unlimited power, abilities, and knowledge of everything simultaneously.

3. In ther midst of our hardships and challenges to this earthly life, he is CONSTANTLY doing miraculous things in our life and IN our anatomy for instance . So many things we just take for granted with our daily living ...but did you know that the 60 trillion Cells in your Body are rountinely being replenished with specific deliberate informational messages to build new cells and biological systems every second of your day ? God not only is the creator of the universe and us..but he sustains our Bodies in such a way that we are unaware of. The way our human anatomy is, is a great testimony to Gods loving care and power ...and to think his thoughts are with each and every one of us thruout the day...is nothing short of amazing and miraculous in and of itself.

4. As humans, when we go thru struggles, we are prone to pity-partying and get so caught up in ourselves...that we forget how God is faithful in being with us thru them, and, how he helps us to overcome the adversity which ultimately ends up making us stronger in our Christian Walk.

5. Our duty on earth as Christians, is to trust and obey God regardless what comes along on our plate . We are victorious by what Christ has accomplished for us and the inheritence we have (present tense) of eternal bliss forthcoming . THEN, our pains and sorrows in this short earthly life will melt away like a hot knife thru soft butter giving way to our REAL HOME .... for, alas, we are just passing thru this life .

SoapnWater said:

Why does God take so long in everything? I know this is a foolish question, that, "everything will happen in the fullness of its time". But why does God add hardship after hardship when He could easily do something unique for you, such as a miracle.

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God doesn't add hardship to us (James 1:13); we enter into hardship by failing to listen for, hear, and act on God's situational leading; thereby giving our enemy the devil opportunity to lead us into harship.


God isn't the holdup; we are. He has given us authority in the earth (Gen 1:26) and we have a choice to either yield this authority back to Him by seeking to be led by Him in all things, or to yield this authority to the devil by making our own decisions independent of God's leading. He has already given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him, which is to say though knowing Him - through fellowship with Him - through being led by Him (2Pet 1:1-4).

miracles happen when we are led by God; miracles depend on us using the authority that God has already given us when and how He leads us to use this authority (Mark 9:22, 23).

this is good news; because if we are waiting on God to do something more, then who can move God? but if He is waiting on us to act on His delegated authority to us according to His perfect timing, then we do have the the ability to move ourselves into fellowship with Him; and all things become possible

God has his own timing. God also gives more to those that are faithful to Him. Those that are faithful, God wants to further His relationship with. A long time ago, Abraham was a faithful servant of God. God was very close to Abraham in his later life and Abraham considered God his friend. But then what did God do? God gave Abraham a test - sacrifice your son Issac. People question why God would do such a thing, especially to someone as faithful as Abraham. I believe that God always wants to further His relationship with us, especially those that have proven to be faithful before. When God tested Abraham and when He tests us, He has everything in control and wants us to grow in our relationship with Him from it.

Luke 16:10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."

Think about when someone breaks an arm or leg. It takes them a while to recover. They have to strengthen the muscles again. Exercise them, and heal them back to normal. During this time they begin to appreciate what they lost. The ability to have both working limbs, and so after an experience like that, they better appreciate what they have.

If God were to simply miraculously take away all of our pain. Would we really learn anything? Or we would stubbornly go our own way until something went wrong, expecting God to take care of it. Think of children whose parents always come in to rescue them when they get in trouble. The kinds continuously get into trouble, because they know that there will be no consequences.

So during times of suffering, we should be try to grow in our faith. To be more appreciative of the things we had and do have. To accept those times as a time of becoming closer in our walk with God.

Compared to eternity, this life is but a blink of an eye.

DiscipleHeLovesToo said:

God doesn't add hardship to us (James 1:13); we enter into hardship by failing to listen for, hear, and act on God's situational leading; thereby giving our enemy the devil opportunity to lead us into harship.


God isn't the holdup; we are. He has given us authority in the earth (Gen 1:26) and we have a choice to either yield this authority back to Him by seeking to be led by Him in all things, or to yield this authority to the devil by making our own decisions independent of God's leading. He has already given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him, which is to say though knowing Him - through fellowship with Him - through being led by Him (2Pet 1:1-4).

miracles happen when we are led by God; miracles depend on us using the authority that God has already given us when and how He leads us to use this authority (Mark 9:22, 23).

this is good news; because if we are waiting on God to do something more, then who can move God? but if He is waiting on us to act on His delegated authority to us according to His perfect timing, then we do have the the ability to move ourselves into fellowship with Him; and all things become possible

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Not necessarily true. Just because you're following God doesn't mean you won't have hardship. Job was following God and experienced some horrible things. Though God wasn't the direct cause of it, He still allowed it to happen.

God may be slow, but He is never late.

God is always on time. Many times His promises in our lives take long because we busy doing things that we think are going to make Him move in our lives instead of trusting Him to do everything for us. When you try to do it by your self effort, God leaves you to it but when you come to the end of yourself and let go, God takes over.

It's all God and our part is to believe!

Galatians 3:1-5 NLT
Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ's death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. [2] Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. [3] How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? [4] Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? [5] I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

SoapnWater said:

Why does God take so long in everything? I know this is a foolish question, that, "everything will happen in the fullness of its time". But why does God add hardship after hardship when He could easily do something unique for you, such as a miracle.

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There are a lot of possible answers, depending on the situation. It may help to have the perspective that we are deep in enemy territory. Anything that goes right is a blessing.

Another angle is that, while God could simply perform one miracle after another, His overarching goal is to raise us up in character and ability, and a life of ease would leave us immature. Eventually we are going to reign with Him, and that's the royal curriculum we're enrolled in. So He often waits on us to become willing to be His agent in a situation. That usually involves growth through obedience, with adversity thrown in, and with time as a necessary factor. Look at the example of David facing adversity for some dozen years as Saul chased after his life. It was hard - very hard - but David was being groomed for the rigors of kingship. So are we.

Mt 6.33 says to place the Kingdom first, and all else will be added. That's the right way to go: put God's priorities first. Give Him the first-fruits, and then you can enjoy the rest in peace, with His blessing. But time is often a hidden dimension in that dynamic.

God sees the full picture, while we see only a small part. He's working sublimely in all our circumstances to bring good to us. It takes faith to see that happening, and all the fruit of the Spirit - patience, endurance, longsuffering, etc -to hang on. But those are fruits of the Spirit: the Holy Spirit is in this with us, taking hold on the other side, strengthening and guiding us as we continue to look to Him.

It's ain't easy, but hanging on beats the alternative, and brings rewards (2Cor 4.17).

SoapnWater said:

Why does God take so long in everything? I know this is a foolish question, that, "everything will happen in the fullness of its time". But why does God add hardship after hardship when He could easily do something unique for you, such as a miracle.

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Ask for the miracle. Ask and you shall receive.

Prayer is supposed to be answered, and if its not answered at all, then you are not praying right. The disciples asked the LORD JESUS to teach them how to pray, so we all can be taught something more.

Also, I've seen GOD many times answer other things, not what I was asking because HE wants us in the right direction, and often we look only superficially and HE looks at the heart.

Lastly, there are times to pray and other times to command, both are important & types of prayer, but are used at different times.

-eric


The Exchanged Life

SoapnWater said:

Why does God take so long in everything? I know this is a foolish question, that, "everything will happen in the fullness of its time". But why does God add hardship after hardship when He could easily do something unique for you, such as a miracle.

Click to expand...

First of all, God doesn't take long in "everything". A million blessings happen every day, all the time, and are constantly happening. The question is, are you looking for them? If you woke up this morning, if you have your health, if you had food to eat, if you had clothes to wear, all of those are daily blessings that you need to be thanking God for.

The Bible gives us lots of clues as to why God allows struggles and hardships into our lives.

James 1:2-4 says "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." That verse right there is full of answers. Trials (that are endured with faith, mind you) produce patience and endurance.

Hebrews 12:11 says "No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Sometimes a difficulty in our lives is God disciplining us out of love, and while it's painful for the moment, it has good results for us in the end.

John 9:1-3 says "As He was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples questioned Him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him." Sometimes we suffer trials so that God can be glorified in our deliverance from those trials If you aren't familiar with this story, Jesus healed the blind man.

One thing you need to remember is that no trial you go through happens because God doesn't care, or isn't there, or is trying to hurt you. Those thoughts are all lies. Some blessings and miracles happen instantaneously and are exciting and huge and momentous. But a million others happen quietly and steadily, from day to day, and if your attitude is focused only what you DON'T get or receive, you might miss them. As the old saying goes, accentuate the positive

This is a very helpful thread!

Try fasting and prayer as well. It's amazing how God will honor us when we humble ourselves before Him in that manner.