What God has promised is not late or delayed. It is simply coming into its appointed season. Avoid a premature attempt to pull the promise from its place of timing and demand to taste its fullness before God has completed His work of ripening.
Along the side fence in our backyard is a grapevine. Each year it faithfully produces sweet champagne grapes. At this moment, they are beautiful, but still green and not edible. To cut off a bunch of grapes and try to eat them at this time would offer only sour grapes and derail the ability to taste their sweetness at the appointed time.
The Lord is teaching you a deeper level of patience in the timing of the fulfillment of His promise. It will be a challenge to wait and watch but, in the waiting and watching you will see the faithfulness of God in both the process and the product of the promise. Pull back your hand to prevent an impatient and premature reach. Wait for the Lord to announce the timing of the harvest. Your reward will give Him time to produce a vintage of goodness that impatience will never taste.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by Couleur from Pixabay
