What If God's Delay Is Actually God's Protection?
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
For a long time, I would ask God, "Why is this taking so long?" "Why do I have to go through this long process? I'm ready."
I thought the delay meant He wasn't ready to move me forward.
But God showed me something that changed my understanding and the way I saw Him—forever. It wasn't that He wasn't ready, He was protecting me.
While washing the dishes, he asked, "How do you know I didn't do this for your protection?" He then proceeded to show me how if He didn't stop certain things from fulfilling—when I wanted it—I would've been manipulated.
There was a time when I constantly asked God, "Why is this taking so long?"
I felt ready. I felt prepared. I couldn't understand why certain doors weren't opening and why things seemed to move so slowly.
Like many people, I assumed the delay meant God wasn't ready or that I needed to do something.
But thankfully, God showed me the true reason behind my delay.
The delay was for my protection.
He began to show me situations in my life and the people involved. There were forces I couldn’t fully see before, along with personalities, motives, weaknesses, and patterns in those people that could have affected the outcome if things had happened earlier.
The truth is, God sees what we cannot.
We view problems and people from a finite perspective and understanding. However, God understands our hearts, knows our thoughts—even before we think them—and is aware of what we or others will do next.
We see the opportunity. But God sees the hidden consequences.
We see what we want or what He has promised. But God sees the better time to fulfill it.
In my situation, I realized that if certain things had happened sooner, they could have opened the door to control, manipulation, and decisions that may have taken everything in the wrong direction or limited the extent of how far God intended for me to go.
What I thought was a frustrating delay was actually God’s mercy, love, protection, faithfulness, and wisdom. He remembered my prayers and, most importantly, He remembered His promise (Numbers 23:19; Genesis 30:22; Hebrews 10:23; Psalm 105:8; 2 Corinthians 1:20).
Isaiah 55:11
"So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose."
That realization gave me a completely different understanding of waiting and of how much we can trust Him. This experience was humbling and gave me chills as I realized just how awesome, amazing, and wonderful God truly is.
God was strategically working.
Not only was He arranging circumstances, but He was also working on people. He was dealing with hearts, exposing pride, correcting attitudes, teaching wisdom, and preparing everyone involved for what was ahead.
And honestly, He was also working on me.
I didn't realize how much of a hindrance I was to my own destiny. Now when I see pride in someone else, I ask the Lord to remove pride out of me. When God exposes manipulation in others, I ask God to remove manipulation from me. When God shows me stubbornness in someone else's life, I ask Him to search my heart too.
The more I thought about it all, the more I was overwhelmed by God's wisdom, power, and how in control He is over everything!
He knows every detail. He sees every motive. He understands every person better than they understand themselves.
There are things happening behind the scenes and in a person's heart, motives, and thought processes that we simply cannot see. And why what feels like God holding you back is actually God keeping you safe until everything is in place.
This goes for everything in your life.
That’s why even when it comes to relationships, people might say, “Oh, you should be with this person.” But there are things about people that you simply don’t know.
You could grow up with a sibling or be best friends with someone since you were both in diapers, and still be amazed to discover something about that person that you never knew. It doesn’t necessarily mean they were hiding it or even that they know it themselves. It could be a personality trait, a characteristic, a weakness, or something within them that you never realized was there. They may not even recognize it in themselves, yet it can still influence how they behave.
Then you wonder, “Why am I experiencing this?” And suddenly there’s regret, hurt, disappointment, and all kinds of consequences.
Sometimes the people we choose can even hold us back in life without intending to.
You could marry someone who genuinely doesn’t want to hold you back, but because of lack of ambition, certain patterns, family issues, generational condemnations (patterns, curse), or things they may not even recognize within themselves, the relationship could affect how far you go.
There are so many different reasons behind what could be happening with a person. Yet we make decisions based on flesh, attraction, lust, our own understanding, or simply what we want—and then wonder why things turned out the way they did.
That’s why I always emphasize that our understanding is limited. Fortunately, we are dealing with a God who sees everything.
When I say everything, I mean everything—the human heart, the animal kingdom, the oceans, the galaxies, and even things we don’t know exist.
There is nothing God does not see. Nothing created in heaven or on earth is hidden from Him.
Yet sometimes we won’t ask Him for help.
And because He doesn’t respond the way we want, because He takes longer than we expected, because we don’t hear His voice, or because His direction doesn’t fit what we want, we move ahead anyway.
Instead, we have to learn to wait on God and say, “God, I don’t know what you’re doing. I’m confused. I may be hearing the wrong voices. My thoughts are all over the place. People are saying things. I may not understand what’s happening. But nonetheless, I’m going to wait on you and trust You.”
Because there is nothing—literally nothing—under the sun, nothing in the galaxies, and nothing created in heaven or on earth that God does not see.
If God sees what we cannot see, then we can trust Him even when we don’t understand what He is doing.
Trust Him.
The God who sees everything is never confused about where you’re going. And His timing, even when difficult, is always wiser than our own.
Just trust and know that He knows what He’s doing, and He knows people.
When you remember this, you can have peace and joy. This shouldn’t only be a source of solace during times of moving forward, but also when you’re dealing with anything in life—sickness, eviction, job loss, a relationship breakup, or whatever you may be facing.
From Series What's Your Story?
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