Coping with God’s delays

Are you waiting ?

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Do you struggle when God is slow answering your prayers? I do.

I had to wait more than 40 years for him to heal my lung problems. I suffered bad infections every winter.

But he healed me in Jerusalem in 2023, and I haven’t been ill since.

Why did God take so long? I don’t know!

But the man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5 had to wait 38 years, and the woman with bad haemorrhaging in Mark 5 waited 12 years.

That was despite God promising that he was their healer in Exodus 14:24.

Ecclesiastes 3:2 says there is a time to heal. This chapter says God works in seasons. But verse 11 guarantees: ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time.’

Perfect timing

God’s timing is perfect. He is never late ... but we can ask him bring things forward. That’s what King David did in Psalm 70:1. He cried out: ‘Hasten, O God, to save me; come quickly, Lord, to help me.’

God knows more about our bodies and our lives than we do, so if we must wait, there’s a reason.

Occasionally, delays may be because we lack faith, or God wants us to deal with something. And we may have to learn that prayer is not just asking God for something. It is also aligning our hearts and our wills to his.

But when we struggle, we can remind ourselves of his promise in Psalm 103:3: ‘He forgives all my sin and heals all my diseases.’

Cleland Thom

Cleland helps to lead Freedom House, a praying community based in the UK.