God's Timetable

I stumbled across this today and was encouraged by it. It very much spoke to the place I am at right now.

Psalm34:19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Sometimes it seems like the Christian life just isn’t worth living. The promised rewards spoken of in the Bible just don’t seem to come fast enough, while the pain of trying to live a Godly life becomes a pain in the neck rather than a blessing. There is no denying that most of us just simply have a different timetable than GOD does, and nothing we say or go through seems to be able to convince Him to get with our program. It can be frustrating and even disheartening when we are going through the toughest times of our lives and GOD just doesn’t seem to be there. There is, of course, a reason why GOD allows us to feel this way.
GOD uses affliction to grow his children. In Romans 5:3-5 the Word tells us to rejoice when we go through our toughest of times because there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Before we get to the light, however, before we emerge out of our affliction into the other side, certain things must take place. Our afflictions should teach us how to persevere or in other words build stamina. It is in this way that we learn to develop that Philippians 4:13 mindset that is convinced that as Christians we can do all things in Christ who gives us strength. From this stamina we begin to build our character in Christ. We learn to quit reacting to our problems with sin, and instead respond to them in prayer and a renewed commitment to live for Christ. Once we reach this point we see the final step, hope. Hope is our light at the end of the tunnel because we know that GOD will deliver us out of all of our afflictions! The key to understanding all of this, though, is to understand that GOD does not do this on our timetable, but on His.

Let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. He who endures to the end will be saved. James 1:4 Matthew 10:22b