Moving at God’s Pace

In Numbers 9:16-23 we see how God’s presence was always with Israel in the form of a cloud or a pillar of fire. Whenever the cloud moved, at the command of the Lord, Israel would pack up and move forward. Whenever the cloud stopped, they would also stop and set up their camp. Sometimes the cloud stopped from the evening until the next morning, and sometimes it stopped for days, a month, or longer than that (v.22). 

The passage doesn’t tell us why the cloud stopped for a month or longer. Was it because Israel needed extended periods of rest? Was God protecting them from dangers ahead? Was God teaching them obedience and trust in his sovereignty? The Israelites were not given the reasons, but they were told to stop, and they had to learn to trust in God’s guidance. However, we know from the story that trusting in God’s will and plan was always difficult for Israel. From the beginning to the end of their journey in the desert we see people rebelling against God and Moses when things didn’t go as they wanted.

How about us today? I don’t know about you, but if I had to wait a month or more to move, I would have become impatient wondering if we are wasting time. After all, we have to get to the Promised Land. We’ve been here for days. We should be there by now. What are we waiting for? Why are we making such slow progress? Tick-tock, tick-tock. Being still and waiting for God’s timing is not part of our nature. 

Many times our plans don’t seem to unfold at the pace we thought they would. We are ready to start packing, but the cloud isn’t moving. We are eager to go, but God has us waiting. It doesn’t make sense to us, and our reaction to that period of seeming setbacks will reveal what our hearts truly trust. If we doubt God’s sovereignty, love, and faithfulness, we may become fearful, anxious, frustrated, or fall into despair. We may perceive God’s silence as abandonment and his delay as disregard, which will cause us to take matters into our own hands.

However, if we trust in God’s sovereignty, love, and faithfulness, we will pause, pray, and patiently wait for his timing. 

Pause

Israel knew that when the cloud stopped it was time to rest. If things are not moving forward as we expected, it may be that God has different plans and He wants us to pause and trust in him.

Pray

When we pray, our tendency is to request that the cloud will move so that we can proceed with our plans, but how about praising God for having us in that place of complete dependence? How about thanking him for what He is doing? How about asking for his will to be done and for him to be glorified? Praying like this will change us.

Patiently wait for God’s timing

Just because things are not moving at our pace, it doesn’t mean that God has forgotten us. He is not without a plan. When we wait for God’s perfect plan to unfold, anxiety is replaced with peace and rest.

Even as I write these thoughts, the Lord has me in a season of waiting. I have plans and goals that I would like to accomplish for the Lord, but in my struggles with back issues and fibromyalgia, God is teaching me to pause, pray, and wait. God has a plan in our seasons of seeming setbacks. He is not in a rush and He is not delayed.

The One who controls time, sent his Son into this world “when the fullness of time had come” (Gal. 4:4). He sent him to the cross “at the right time” (Rom. 5:6). He will come back “at the proper time” (1 Tim. 6:14-15). In the gospels we never see Jesus running, pushing or anxious about time. He never complained about having to wait 30 years to start his ministry. He taught and healed people, but He also rested and trusted in his Father’s will. 

Are you facing a season of apparent failure or setbacks? Are you asking the Lord to open doors, but there is no answer though you’ve been faithful?

What if God has you right where He wants you this season? What if all He wants for you now is to trust him and rest in his presence? 

God is sovereign in our “sitting down and in our laying down” as much as He is in everything else (Psalm 139: 2-3). God’s presence covered the tabernacle day and night, “So it was always” says verse 16. Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, has sent his Spirit to live in us, and He is always with us; in our going and in our resting.