God Is Not Procrastinating

Have you ever considered how long God waits between the big milestone points of history? Adam and Eve sin in the Garden of Eden. Four thousand years later God sends His son Jesus. The Church has now been waiting another two thousand years for the second coming of King Jesus, looking forward to the new heaven and new earth.

In the human perspective, long delays usually mean something is hard to accomplish. And we tend to procrastinate rather than tackle hard things, don’t we?

God is not procrastinating.

We learn from the Bible that God’s timing is perfect (though we may not understand it). For example, God the Father sends His son Jesus in the “fullness of time” (see Galatians 4:4) – when the time is right.

Fixing what is wrong with the world is not going to be difficult for God. To illustrate this, read what will happen to Satan:

“And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him…”

(Revelation 20:1-3) Note the ordinariness of this account. It’s one angel who does this – not an army, not a super-special hero angel, not even a named angel. (Let’s call him “Bob.”) There is no spectacular fight, no massive resistance, and no doubt that one angel is adequate to do the job. There is no evidence that this unnamed angel gets a medal of commendation for service “above and beyond the call of duty.”

Take encouragement from this, and enlarge your confidence that our God is able and will set everything right – in the fullness of time. This hope helps us endure all things as ministers of reconciliation and grace to people in darkness.