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Christian Network

"It was not granted you to complete the task, and yet you may not give it up."

-Rabbi Tarfon

There are divine works that we are called to participate in but not finish. God often does great things over periods of time that exceed the human lifespan. Paul tells us that the great patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament could only look forward to the coming of the Messiah. Even though they played important roles in preparing His way none lived to see the Advent. Similarly, David made Jerusalem a great city in preparation for the construction of the Temple of the Lord but it was left to his son to see it built. We who today labor for the Kingdom may not be here for its consummation at the return of Christ.

These examples all relate to major biblical events but this truth can just as accurately be applied to any Christian’s life ministry. Some of the goals God has called us to work towards will be accomplished during our earthly pilgrimage and some will not. The problem for contemporary believers is that we have a tendency to see all things as attainable not only in our lifetime but in a few months or years. This is because many of us have been beguiled by the "instant gratification" culture of the 21^st Century. We forget that the Lord of time does not work according to our idea of time. Some trees, after all, do not reach maturity for hundreds of years. He is the God of the Tortoise as well as the Cheetah. It may even be accurate to say that the greatest things in our lives are the things that take the longest for us to attain. We should not be surprised that this is at least as equally true for ministry.

It is important for believers to be reconciled to the truth of this. If we are easily frustrated by what seems to us to be the glacial pace in the fulfilling of a mission we know we have been called to then we run the risk of losing heart. How many promising ministries have been abandoned in their infancy because results do not fulfill our expectations? It is sobering to ponder the possibility that God has left His human servants with the power not only to advance but also to hinder the gospel. The hindrance can occur in a number of ways for a number of reasons and one of them is impatience with the timing of results. The temptation to impatience typically begins with an unrealistic expectation. An example of such an expectation might be the idea that a new Bible study or small group should draw large numbers of people in a very short period. The fact is that such ministries do not always achieve "respectable" numbers for quite some time. If the organizers do not factor that possibility into their thinking, from the beginning, they will be sorely tempted to give up altogether where a willingness to wait might produce great fruit in season.

It is not for us to know the season when a ministry will produce an abundant crop for the King’s storehouse. What we can know from the Scripture is that "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day" (2 Pe 3:8.) It is imperative that the implication of this verse be allowed to sink into our minds and hearts. Once we realize that God does not operate according to our schedule it will be much easier to do His work while leaving the timing of the harvest to Him. Even if we do not see that harvest here on Earth we will once we get to Heaven and become, ourselves, part of the completed work of our Lord.