"do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3 and it also says in verse 15 that "..patience means salvation..".
"Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." James 5
God's time is not my time, His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. I think when human characteristics, feelings, and thoughts are related to our image of God, it's not an accurate portrayal. With the Lord "a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day". What I experience of time does not relate to the Lord's time, and this is where I am able to find an amazing amount of peace and comfort in my life. How I see time is different than how God does. What feels like slowness to us, is just that, a feeling, "God is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness".
And to what extent of the time we experience is in relation to our emotions and present feelings? It's like they saying "How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on".
However, I think God sees things from a different perspective of His own. He sees the potential of a seed. I think I need to apply the way God created things to grow -- how the small speck of a seed slowly grows into a garden of vegetables or a towering tree -- to how I see growth in other areas of my life.
Because I cannot rush the growth of a tree. There must be patience, watering it daily, and taking care of the seed, even though no results are seen day after day. If you get impatient with it, and maybe flood it with water and sunshine, it's not going to speed up the process (it could even kill..). When I look at a garden, or the growth of a child, and looking at how God created the speed of the growth process by seeing how things grow in His creation all around me, it gives me a glimpse into the realm of His time.
God created the process of growth to be slow, gradual, and unobservable to the eye if you try to watch it, just like there is no way to watch the entire process of a seed growing into a tree. It happens gradually and over time, and not until many years later do you see the final result. I think God works in us in the same way as growth happens in the nature around us... slowly... gradually... patiently... day by day
I find comfort in these verses, because when I have been praying or feel my prayers are not causing any change, or feel like I am not growing fast enough in a certain area of my life and just feel stagnant, I can remember that God is in a different timezone.
Just because I am not able to see results overnight (just like a seed will not turn into a tree overnight), I know that if God is our gardener, and if we let Him take care of us, and let Him water us with His water of life and shine into our lives with His light of the word, day by day, He is working good. :)
"Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes." ~ Psalm 37
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes." ~ Psalm 37
"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord". ~ Psalm 27
