Rest, and Trust God’s Timing by Rick Warren

“Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for him to act … Don’t fret and worry — it only leads to harm” (Psalm 37:7-8 TLB).

Proverbs 19:2b says, “Impatience will get you into trouble” (GNT). It’s frustrating when you’re in a hurry and God isn’t. God is never in a hurry! The Bible says a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day to God. One of the most useless things to try to do is to speed up God. When we try to take matters into our own hands and help God out, we get in trouble.

When you get a dream from God and make the decision to go for it but then are forced into God’s waiting room, you start trying to figure out ways of doing God’s dream on your own.

But the Bible says to trust God’s timing: “Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for him to act. . . . Don’t fret and worry — it only leads to harm” (Psalm 37:7-8 TLB).

Resting can be an act of faith. It means you’re waiting on God. When Jesus and the disciples were in a boat that was caught in a big storm, Jesus just kept sleeping through all the ruckus while the disciples freaked out. When they woke him up to ask, “Why are you sleeping?!” he responded, “Do you think God is going to let the boat sink with me in it?” By sleeping through the storm, Jesus was saying that we can trust God even in the middle of a storm.

When we get into a storm, we tend to lie awake all night and fret about it. But that means we’re not living by faith. We can’t get any sleep because we don’t really trust God to work it out. God says, “Don’t fret. Remember that I’m always with you, and you can trust my timing.”

Worry only makes you miserable. So stop worrying, and start trusting God to work in you and through you while you are in a delay on the way to your dream.

Talk It Over

Why does rest so often make us feel guilty?
What do you think God is trying to teach you while you have been delayed? What have you learned about yourself and about God in a delay by design?
What is one thing you can change about your schedule or your expectations so that you are not tempted to rush God in this phase of your faith?