In His perfect time.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times someone has told me “wait on God, He knows what’s best for you” I think a lot of us have received those same words of encouragement from people in the midst of a difficult time. That cliche but powerful phrase can make us become frustrated when we’re in the middle of a waiting season. That is the exact place I have found myself in during the last couple of months of my life; in a process of waiting on God to fulfill His promises. I’ve found myself there, in the middle of waiting, with people who have had good intentions in trying to encourage me telling me that “He has the best for me”. This process that so many have said should be enjoyable was starting to become the most frustrating and desperate season of my life. The truth is that there was an easy way out: to simply not wait on God and do things my way. I think we’ve all been at that place, sometimes it can feel like the longest desert we’ve had to walk through, filled with so many questions

Why do I have to wait on you God? How long will I have to wait? How long will this waiting season last? Is there an easier way to this?

Those are questions that begin to take hold of our minds, fill us with doubt, and sometimes even rob us of what God is trying to work in us through the waiting season. Have you ever found yourself in that place, in the middle of the process, where you feel you’ve done everything to get “the promise”?

A couple of months ago I began to study the book of Ruth in the bible, I’ve read this book many times, for many Christians this book tells the love story of Ruth and Boaz. Boaz, mister prince charming, the one who redeemed Ruth, fought for her, protected her, etc. It is a story that describes how a man should love a woman (cue: when a maaaaaaaaan loves a womaaaan! Oh, c’mon, don’t act like you don’t know the song). But as I read this book, the holy spirit began to give me a new theme in which He wanted me to focus on, I began to deeply study the theology and history of this book, and he began to show me, how this book is more about obedience and promises, rather than just love.

For those of you who have not read the book of Ruth, let me summarize it for you in my own words:

In this story there are four very important people – Ruth, Naomi (her mother in-law), Orpah (her sister in-law), and Boaz (who eventually became Ruth’s husband).

Naomi was the mother of two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, both Ruth and Orpah were married to Naomi’s sons. When her two children died, Ruth and Orpah became widowers, that is when Naomi heard that God was blessing her town with a great harvest so she decided she would go back to Judah (where Naomi was from) and begin a new life there. Naomi told Orpah and Ruth to go back to their homes, to their people and to their gods. The bible says the Orpah kissed Naomi on the cheek and went her way back into her homeland, while Ruth decided to follow Naomi. Some versions of the bible say “but Ruth clung to Naomi” – lets pause for a bit there. When I read “but Ruth clung to Naomi” I was reminded of how important it is for us to cling on to the promises of God, He doesn’t just require for us to believe in His promises, but also to cling onto them, to not let anything move us from or rob us from the hope that we have that He will do what He said he would do, He wants us to believe that he will fill every promise, in his perfect time.

After that epic phrase, Ruth (who is truly one of my favorite characters in the bible) commits herself fully to Naomi:

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.’ -Ruth 1: 16-17

The bible continues to tell the story of how Ruth and Naomi travel together to Judah, the land where Ruth met God’s promise and favor over her life. Ruth began to work in a field which belonged to Boaz; the Bible describes him as a man of integrity and wealth, who was respected by the people in his town. One day as Ruth was in the harvest field, Boaz noticed her and called her out, telling his workers to give Ruth all that she needed in abundance. Ruth had won Boaz’s favor and protection, and eventually he became her kinsman redeemer and husband.

When I was reading this book, I was alone at work, sitting in front of my computer trying to study the chapters, when a question came to my mind:

What ever happened to Orpah? Where did she go? What was her life like when she returned back to her people?

As I began to study the theology of Orpah, and reading many bible commentaries, it was there that the holy spirit spoke to me like never before. I could not believe my eyes when I read what had happened to Orpah. Orpah returned home, where she remarried a man and gave birth to two sons, both who were giants, and one of her sons was Goliath, yes, you read that right GOLIATH. Her decision to to go back to her town, to what she already knew, to what was easy, brought her to eventually give birth to Goliath, she had to live with a giant in her life for the rest of her life. While Ruth was living in the promises of God because she clung onto Him. Do you see where I am going with this?

What place do you find yourself in today? Are you in a season of waiting? Are you about to throw in the towel? Listen to me, keep walking out the process, keep clinging to Him, don’t let go of His promises over your life. Orpah had to live with a giant in her life, a giant she herself gave birth to because she decided not to follow the true God. But Ruth lived in obedience, she was eventually the great grandmother of King David, and she belongs in the linage of Jesus. The craziest thing in all of this, is that David was who defeated Goliath (are you seeing what I’m seeing here?)

A preacher I recently heard at a conference said something that really stood out to me, he said:

The only worse thing than waiting on God, is wishing that you would have.

Every good gift from God comes with a season of waiting!

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. – Hebews 6:12

I don’t know what your process looks like at this moment, and I also don’t know what are the promises that God has given you, but one thing that I do know is that, before God fulfills His promises He wants to do something in you before He does anything through you. Seasons of waiting can be the greatest gift, our faith can be increased, our talents can be refined, our relationships can be restored, your character can be stronger. God uses seasons of waiting to make us more into His perfect image. What would happen if we don’t learn to wait on God? we can make decisions that are not a part of His plan for our lives. I have seen so many people that I love take processes into their own hands and do things in their own time, only to realize that was not God’s plan to begin with.

Don’t worry about how long God may be taking to bring his promises into completion, His timing is perfect, just be obedient. Don’t become frustrated, don’t take the easy way out, that will only give birth to a giant in your life, a giant you will have to work hard to defeat. And believe me, defeating giants is harder than waiting on God. God knows what he is doing in this season, reach out your hand and let him hold it, the more time you spend with him the more like him you will become. Spend intimate time by His side, he want’s to make you like Him.

For me, this process has felt like a really long one, but it has truly been the most beautiful process I’ve ever walked through. I can’t tell you that it has been easy and perfect, because it has been very far from that, it’s been work, it’s taken a lot of pruning, God has shown me the condition of my heart, in fact, at this very moment I find myself in a place I never thought I would be in; something completely new and totally unexpected. I’ve had to make changes to my life that I never thought I would have to make, sometimes I feel like a fish out of the water, but you know what? I have never seen the hand of God over my life like I had seen it in this season. He has sent wonderful people to speak word after word over my life, words of prophecy, of encouragement and of peace. He has restored relationships, given me new dreams and hopes, and I have learned that his timing looks nothing like mine. I have learned to make peace with his time clock, and I have learned to say “If tomorrow you want to fulfill your promises, that is fine. And if you want to fulfill them in 50 years, that is fine. Take control of my time, I will be here, waiting for You.”