Delayed Answers

There isn't any major news in our adoption at this point.  We are praying for news very soon, but nothing has really changed.  Well, there is something that changed.  God changed me.  I prayed and fasted for the 30 days leading up to my birthday.  And while I secretly hoped (maybe it wasn't so secretly) that there would be a miraculous breakthrough during that time period, the Lord chose to keep us in the refiner's fire just a little bit longer.  I am reading a fabulous book by Bob Sorge about this very thing and it's made the trial and the delayed answer almost taste sweet.

This book is a great reminder that God is sovereign and that He has a purpose in the pain. Here are a few quotes to ponder.

"When God does something to you, all you can do is submit and pray and wait for God to fulfill His purposes." Bob Sorge p. 51

"When God brings distress, pain, affliction, and suffering into our lives, He does so for a purpose.  He wants to enlarge our hearts.  But our hearts are resistant to change.  In order for the enlargement to be complete, the period of pain must be long enough in duration to complete the work.  We don't know how long that is, only God does.And that's why God often responds to our cries for deliverance with the words, "Not yet."  All we want is for the pain to stop; but He wants something far more valuable.  God's going for the gold.  He wants the gold of a refined character, of an enlarged heart.  He wants the crucible to make us more like Christ.  And He's committed to sustaining the heat until the work is complete."  Sorge p. 144

"God can out-wait anybody.  He just waits and waits, while the crisis looms larger and larger, and He waits some more.  He waits until the crisis becomes an impossible predicament.  And then He waits some more!  Finally, when the remotest chance of escape is completely gone, God intervenes suddenly and miraculously."  Sorge p. 156

Abraham and Sarah were given a promise and waited 25 years for that promise to be fulfilled.  Jesus waited 30 years to begin his public ministry.  Both of those examples make our 20 month wait seem very, very short.

All I can say is that God is good and God is faithful.  I don't know the outcome of this trial, but I know that this trial has brought intimacy with the Lord and for that I am extremely thankful.  The Psalms and the book of Isaiah have brought me much comfort and hope as we wait on the Lord.  We know that our great God is in the details.  He is writing this story and ultimately all we can do is "submit and pray and wait for God."  We know that He will not disappoint!

Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.  For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him.  Isaiah 30:18