Ecclesiastes 3:1 claims, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens."
We often have complaints: When will we find the right people? When will we get good jobs? When will our families believe in God?...
We hold too many questions and grudges against God, and even get angry at God. However, how much time do we spend seeking God?
Now let's look at who our God is.
God is faithful
2 Timothy 2:13 reads, "If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself."
My father believed in God about a decade ago, but he later converted to Buddhism and opposed my Christian faith. A few days before the 2017 Chinese New Year, he had a car accident. The car he drove was destroyed, while he was unharmed. He felt a kind of power protecting him from harm at the dangerous moment. Since then, he started to read the Bible, pray, and go to church. Nobody could change him but God.
I used to hear many testimonies that showed God's faithfulness. However, they seemed so distant to me. It was God that amazingly changed the heart of my father.
In the past, I worried about my family and frequently asked God when they would become Christians. Philippians 4:6 states, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
Consider Joseph. His father doted on him when he was a kid. He wore the best clothes among the twelve sons and had a prophetic dream about God's blessings. He might have been arrogant, but then how could he become an outstanding leader? God trained him in an unusual environment and through special experiences.
Isaiah 49:15 says, "'Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!'" God never gives us up even though our parents abandon us.
God works in his time
How can we fathom God's wisdom? God works in his time. Nature runs in a regular pattern in his hands, let alone people beloved by him. God cares about our things. So our life has a time.
My father's conversion was something I waited for almost one decade. So we need to wait sometimes.
What should we do?
That God has his time and promises for us becomes an excuse for some Christians to be lazy. They want good jobs, but only pray without improving themselves; they desire good partners, but only believe in God's power and fail to review themselves to make themselves appealing...
John 5:17 In his defense Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working."
2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat."God has a time, but he is righteous. God helps non-Christians who help themselves even though they don't have blessings from biblical covenants.
If Joseph didn't work diligently while waiting for the fulfillment of God's promises, I'd be afraid that God's blessings might not come true or they might take a long time to fulfill.
We should avoid being anxious or asking God when he will give us what we want. Instead, make a little bit of progress in Christ every day. When it is God's time, you will realize that you are no longer as you were, but polished by God into works of art.
- Translated by Karen Luo
