Perhaps nothing is more difficult for the believer in Christ than to wait.
From our desire to share the Word, to help others, to remain active in service to our Lord, we often feel the ‘push’ of time spurring us to go and to do. But going and doing are only one part of service to Christ. Yes, it is in the going and doing that many fall short in their service, becoming a mere placeholder on a pew or in a chair. But the believer who is truly led by the Spirit knows the value of timing, particularly that of God’s timing.
It is easy to forget that Jesus’ public ministry spanned a period of less than one-tenth his time on Earth. The events of His first thirty years are almost exclusively a mystery, but those of his final three are the stuff about which multitudes of volumes have been produced. As the Apostle John put it, “I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25).
Jesus began his earthly ministry at precisely the right time. Not just the right year or month or day, but precisely the right moment in all of time. His coming had been prophesied hundreds of years earlier, and serious students of the prophets had expected it throughout that time. Though the ‘shine’ may have worn off those promises for many as the years and decades dragged on, no doubt there was always a remnant who truly believed they’d live to see their Messiah.
With those centuries of prophecy behind Him, those decades of preparation leading Him to the starting line, the human in Jesus must have felt the urge to jump out of Jordan immediately after his baptism and start preaching the Gospel of salvation. But fortunately, this man was different than any other who’s ever lived, because this man was also God – not just God in word or in thought or symbol or allegory, but in the most literal of realities. And as God, He knew He must obey the will of His Father – to do otherwise would be to completely sever Jesus from Himself, continuing the damnation mankind had been suffering for four millennia.
And so this man Jesus followed the leading of the Spirit into a wilderness of wild beasts and hunger and thirst and worst of all the harshest temptations Satan could muster. Imagine the banished Great Tempter standing over the very being who had banished him, now shouldered with the burden of humanity’s suffering. Thirsty and starved in that physical body, Jesus endured all temptation common to man – yes, the term endured is perfect. On the one side – the human side – of enduring, Jesus suffered immensely. But suffering is not all the term implies, for it tells us He endured it all. He came out the other side with His virtue, His perfection, His holiness intact.
And only then was this man – this God – ready to get to work. All in God’s time, all by His perfect plan.
And best of all, believer – He has a perfect time and a perfect plan for you. Take care to not outrun Him, for only He knows where all the turns are.
