Process Precedes Promise: Delay is Not Denial

"I called upon him, but he gave me no answer" (S. of Sol. 5:6).

The Lord, when He hath given great faith, hath been known to try it by long delayings. He has suffered His servants' voices to echo in their ears as from a brazen sky. They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained unmovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges. Like Jeremiah, they have cried, "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through."

Thus have true saints continued long in patient waiting without reply, not because their prayers were not vehement, nor because they were unaccepted, but because it so pleased Him who is a Sovereign, and who gives according to His own pleasure. If it pleases Him to bid our patience exercise itself, shall He not do as He will with His own!

No prayer is lost. Praying breath was never spent in vain. There is no such thing as prayer unanswered or unnoticed by God, and some things that we count refusals or denials are simply delays.
--H. Bonar

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It is important for us, as believers, to understand the principle of process. In simple, there can be no obtainment of the promise without there first being and endurance of the process. We so often attempt to lay hold of the promise while attempting to circumvent the process. God quickens through process. God strengthens through process. God elevates through process. God heals through process. God restores through process.

Dr. Rick Wallace

If you were to consult Joseph, he would tell you that he became the second highest ranking official in a foreign land, but he would also tell you that it was only after a 13 year process of betrayal, disappointment and delay. If you were to speak with David, he would tell you that he became king and the Messiah descended from his bloodline, but he would iterate that it only came after patience, waiting and preparation in the wilderness as a lowly shepherd boy. If you were to speak to father Abraham, he would tell you that he received a promise that he would sire a nation, but it took 25 years before the first seed of promise bore fruit. There is no attainment of the promise without there first being an endurance of the process.

Too often, we perceive delay to be denial. We tend to set time clocks on the rate of our advancement, forgetting that God is the author of time, but he is not bound by it. God moves when it is best for us.

God is faithful in performing all that He has promised, but you must be faithful in enduring the process through which the promise is executed. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace