This month is to be for you the first month. (Ex. 12:2)
Big milestones in life can seem so far off in the distance—until they are right in front of us. You wait weeks and weeks, days and hours, for Christmas morning to arrive. Then suddenly you have opened every gift, and you’re sitting in a pile of wrapping paper. You plan the perfect wedding for years, count down the months of the engagement, and then suddenly you find yourself placing a ring on the finger of your new spouse. You daydream about retirement and count down the years, then one day you wake up and don’t have to go to work anymore. Some important life events have a predictable pattern. Long periods of anticipation, followed by rapid movement.
God’s people waited in Egypt for hundreds of years to be rescued. When Moses arrived and the plagues began, God told them to wait several days to prepare the Passover lamb. Then, literally overnight, everything changed. The people were free to flee. The instructions for the Passover reflected the haste in which God’s salvation came upon them. They didn’t even have time to let the bread rise.
Sometimes God works this way in our lives. During the long waiting periods, he is cultivating in us a close and attentive relationship with him. Then, when he’s ready for us to move, it often happens faster than we think.
Let God develop your character and faith during the waiting.
Jarod Osborne is lead pastor of Pathway Church, in Warsaw, Indiana. He is the author of Jaded Faith (WPH).
© 2019 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
