Between the Times

Waiting and looking, not knowing what to expect, yet expecting what we do not know. Questions swirl, realty crashes with dreams, it’s all so uncertain; the next step has yet to be revealed. In the darkness of uncertainty, questioning whether he heard the Lord correctly, or even if the Lord has heard him, Habakkuk is waiting; waiting on a response from the Lord. His questions of confusion swirl through the heavenlies like a whirlwind, landing on the ears of the Almighty. Questions born out of confusion are not necessarily harbored in the darkness of doubt. It is always best to send questions of God back to God. Questions do not always flow from the pride of doubt but some from the humility of a true heart, seeking out the will of God. All Habakkuk wanted was to know his God, to understand His ways. He questioned what God was doing, was the plan He sat in motion actually coming about? What does one do when the will of God, the plan that was laid out, seems to be dissolved? When things have seemingly derailed off course? When things seem to be in reverse, losing ground instead of gaining it?

“I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me…” Habakkuk 2:1

 

Habakkuk was stationed for revelation. He didn’t run, he waited. He positioned himself to hear the word from the Lord. How many of us ask questions but then run ahead to find the answer? After all, waiting is hard. Especially when the answer lies beyond the horizon. We do not like sitting still, we feel like nothing is happening. When the Lord answered Habakkuk He said “For still the vision awaits the appointed time, it hastens to the end-it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay.” In wisdom the Lord proved that He is not indebted to the calendar of man. He is not one to be rushed or pushed into untimely events; His answer–wait for it.
Waiting confuses us.  In a world of instant gratification, we grow antsy and impatient, the fear of miscalculation and misguidance starts rumbling through our souls, shaking us to our core. The answer from on high deals both with the frustration of waiting and the fears….” it hastens to the end—it will not lie.If it seems slow, wait for it,  it will surely come; it will not delay.”

The word hasten in this verse actually means “to pant”. The image is engraved here of a runner striving to reach the finish line. The word of the Lord will prove true, even though things seem still, its working to cross over to its destination. Isaiah says “ ¹⁰As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, ¹¹so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” The word of the Lord is accomplishing, if it seems as if it has no effect, it is not that it has halted but we have just yet to see the harvest. It’s growing, reaching for maturation. The end result is all we see, we miss the process of providence. The underground work, that takes place out of the range of our peripheral sight. We are in the margin, between the times, where things remain the same, where the anchor of hope is lodged in the sand of time. And that anchor is slowly losing its grip. With each passing moment, time seeks to dissolve hope. That is why we must crawl above the sand dunes, to the watch tower, where clear perspective is gathered. If hope is lodged in the fallibility of our own calendar then it will sink in the uncertainty of time. But if it stands upon higher ground the sinking sand of time will not be able to take it down.

 

We like Habakkuk, often find ourselves living between the times; Sandwiched between prophecy and fulfillment. That can be a heavy place; caught between the future and the present.  How do you live in between the times, when purpose is lodged in a promise and the promise lodged in providence?

 

Watch and wait. While waiting often confuses us, faith unties the knots that complicate the process.

 

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by faith.” Habakkuk 2:4

 

Faith is the paradigm of promise, based on grace, faith prepares us for providence. Faith doesn’t require God to work on our schedule. It rests in the “appointed time”. It stands watching at the finish line as the promise crosses over. It understands that we have no right to hold God prisoner to our time table. Faith unlocks us from the prison of time, where expectations are based on the tick of the clock. It “provides a solution to the doubt we sometimes feel in His all wise providence.”. Doubters, not questioners, are often puffed up with pride. The idea of control and desire for it, injects its toxic venom into our belief system. In all our plotting and calculating we bloat with pride, choosing our ways over His, assuming we know better than the Almighty. On the other hand Faith deflates; as we surrender our calender to Eternal One, the pressure is released.

 

When we are stuck in the middle, between already and not yet, faith is the watch tower. Where we watch, not the things that are seen but that which is unseen. Where we wait not on our plans to unfold, but for the appointed time-even if it tarries. It’s a place of elevated perspective.

 

If you are stuck between the times, don’t lose heart, the promise of the Lord will not be stopped, it speeds ahead—look for it, expect it—watch and wait for it. For nothing has the power to alter its course or derail it from its mission. The word will come without delay you need only to watch in faithfulness.

I’ll leave you with the encouraging words of Barker and Bailey “Habakkuk’s Revelation emphasized the life-giving nature of God. He cares for His people even when He seems distant and uninvolved. Though the revelation may take what appears to be an agonizingly long time to appear, wait for it. God knows and cares for His people.”

Worth the wait

Patience. It’s an attribute we rarely see in such a fast paced world.  But we see a beautiful display of a life steeped in the glory of patience in Luke 2:22-38. 

Simeon was a man who was waiting on God-literally. God had promised him that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. So, day in, day out, he went into the temple anticipating the day when his eyes would see the salvation of Israel; when his promise would be realized. We’re not real sure how long he had been waiting or how old he was. All the Sunday School pictures I’ve ever seen show an old man, on the threshold of death. Scholars believe he probably was elderly. Yet, we have no idea because Scripture is silent on the subject. Maybe the silence was intentional so that this mans example of patience while waiting would speak to all ages. It occurred to me as I peered into the life of this ancient man; you don’t have to be old to be waiting on God. People of all ages find themselves in a period where we are waiting on God to come and act. Are you waiting on something? Then you know how painful the sound of the clock can be. Every passing moment leaves the promises of God unfulfilled and your heart longing….longing to see His salvation. 

No matter his age, Simeon was a devout man. Not because of anything he did or didn’t do but because he was submitted to the timing of God. He knew what God had told him and he trusted Him to fulfill it. He didn’t question if he would get to see the Messiah because God told him he would. He may have been waiting for years… waiting on God to do what He said He would. Then one day, a day just like every other, the Word made flesh was carried into the temple by the arms of a poor young couple. At that moment the Shakienah glory entered the temple once again (It left in Ez 10) and the aging priest saw the fulfillment of His promise. 
I love the description of Simeon in verse 25. It says he was waiting, devout and the Holy Spirit was upon him. Think about how hard it is to stay devout while waiting. 
The Greek definition of devout is ( eulabes) taking well, careful, circumspect. The word for wait is prosdechomai- to wait with patience and confidence.
As Heaven closed up for 400 years (The world was in a dry spell. The tongue of God had be still for 400 years.) Simeon took all the circumstances into speculation. He stood on the promise of God and looked at the circumstances. He didn’t stand on the circumstances and look at Gods promise. To stay devout in the midst of a drought calls for this kind of perspective. If we are waiting on God and we look through the dry circumstances around us we will wither up. Yet if we look at those same circumstances through the promises God made then even though its dry all around us- our souls will not be. 
Things tend to dry out as time goes on: paint, bones, clothes, land. To suck the moisture out of an object we allow it to sit, especially in the heat or under the sun. Our souls tend to do the same thing. As we wait on God we will have to fight to keep our “moisture” to keep the refreshment of the Spirit. We will have to fight the dryness with this outlook or our perspective will dry us out. We will become dehydrated. The uncertainty of the dry season will draw out our vitality. 

Yet we see a man, who had been waiting. Waiting on the promise of God to be fulfilled and yet he had not dried out. He still had a robustness about him, he was still thriving despite the dry conditions. 
His roots were deep. 
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. He is like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
He didn’t worry about how long the drought was nor about the crop because his trust was placed solely on the head of God, resting in the security of His heart and will, not on circumstances. Not trusting in time but in God. 
We are much too fickle with our devotion. We place it in many things…but the one that often goes unnoticed is the sly god of time. We watch it, we account for every minute… yet instead of us taking hold of it somehow it takes hold of us and we are driven by the  tyranny of the urgent. Driven by something we can never grasp, slaves to the tick of the clock. That’s why we look for it to come through for us. That’s why we buy into the lie “time heals all things”. It doesn’t. Ask anyone who has buried a child or lost a spouse or ask someone whose dreams have been dashed. Time doesn’t heal, the Lord heals. Yet we look for it to, we demand a lot out of time that it simply cannot give; healing, restoration, hope, fulfillment, satisfaction, purpose. Time is a vehicle God uses for the eternal to be manifested in the visible realm. The clock was set into motion to work for eternity. Time is an agent in the hands of a timeless God. Yet when we think of time we think of restrictions, time says something has to be by a certain point or it’s marked “late”. Yet even the chains of time can not bind God. He works free from the tyranny of the urgent, He is the one who can break through the barricade of time. That’s why it’s said of him that he calls things that aren’t as though they are. (Romans 4:17) Time doesn’t restrict Him but it will restrict us when we trust in the ticks of the clock, the pages of a calendar over the hand and heart of the One who set time into motion. 
Dry seasons send farmers into a panic, because they have no control over the circumstances that determines their livelihood. They ring their hands and pace around their fields; to no avail. All they can do is wait on the drought to be over. And it will be. Maybe your reading this post just to hear those words: it wont last forever. One day the skies will grow dark, pregnant with fulfillment, and then it will come. The wait will be over and your eyes will see the salvation of the Lord. 
Focus on the God of the promise not on the lack of clouds. 
I hate to wait. I like every minute of my day to be accounted for. Just the other day I sat at a drive through waiting on my order. I had been sitting there awhile and I felt myself growing impatient, even though I had nowhere to be or anywhere to go, I felt antsy as the minutes ticked on as I sat still. And maybe that’s why waiting is so excruciating to some; we have to be still. We as temporal creatures mark every second that can not be accounted for as time lost. If we aren’t moving and doing then we’re “wasting time” because the stamp of purpose never left its mark in the visible realm. So we pat our foot and sigh under our breath, every minute we spend waiting is a minute lost in the whirlpool of time. Yet not with an eternal God. Time spent waiting is some of the most important times we will face. It’s in the season of waiting that God cultivates and prepares us for the fulfillment of His promises. We want it now, the sooner the better, right? Why would God waste vital time and not grant His promises to us instantaneous? Because He knows that the time between the promise and the fulfillment is strategic in the process of cultivation. Just as the soil must be turned up and made ready for the seed-so we must be made ready for the fulfillment of promises. And that takes times. 
As Simeon held the Messiah child in his arms, as he cradled the great I Am…all that time spent waiting, all the moments that seemed to be washed down the drain of insignificance, all the days he waited, they were worth it. Jesus is always worth the wait. 
I don’t know what your waiting on in this season of your life but it’s  worth it. It’ll be worth every midnight tear, every battle with doubt. For every tick of the clock that seemed wasted and forgotten will be redeemed. Stay devout. It’s key to your survival in the desert. For that kind of perspective welcomes the Spirit and He is the One that breathes vitality into our dry bones. I love Ezekiels answer when the Lord asked him if the dry bones could live; he said “O Lord God you know”.Many of us have given up on our own dry bones because we think we know. We assume it’s too late because our circumstances tell us so. Ezekiel looked at the valley of dry bones as what God said it would be, not what he saw and because he trusted the Lord would do what he said, he prophesied; he spoke as if what God said had already taken place and the Spirit took over from there. Our job in the dry times is to trust God, to cling to His word and one day we will see those dry bones dance and it will be worth the wait.