The church has become accustomed to measuring success by the world’s standards–not just in terms of numbers but in terms of speed. In our Western world we expect fast and instant. Think microwave dinners, air travel, Internet.
I think God views time differently.
A story comes to mind; the story of James O. Fraser, chronicled by his daughter Eileen Crossman in the missionary classic, Mountain Rain.
James Fraser was a British missionary who went to Yunnan Province with the China Inland Mission in 1910. He loved to hike and climb, and it was on hiking trips into the Himalayas that he came across the Lisu people, a tribal group living high in the mountains of China, Myanmar, Thailand and India. He felt an immediate affection for them. His initial contact with them was successful because he willingly adopted their lifestyle, staying with them in their huts, eating their food, sleeping on the ground. But nothing of any substance developed from this.
So what did Fraser do?
He prayed. Nothing happened. He became discouraged but he refused to give up. He set himself to pray through. He spent whole days and nights in prayer, crying out to the Lord for the salvation of these people whom God had laid on his heart.
Finally in 1916, he saw breakthrough. Scores of families came to know Christ. By 1918, the Lisu people had taken the Gospel themselves along family lines and 60,000 had been baptized. By the 1990s, the Chinese government admitted that more than 90% of the Lisu in China are Christians.
What would have happened if James Fraser had returned home in defeat after three or four years?
God’s timing is not our timing. If we are looking for instant success, we’re likely to fail. Within the simple church we look for multiplication and that starts slowly–really slowly–and takes time to gather momentum.
We can become discouraged and give up. Or we can choose to press through into everything God has laid on our hearts.
Are there times when you’ve been tempted to give up, but in pressing through, you’ve seen Jesus do things beyond your wildest dreams?
3 replies on “God’s view of time”
I’ve been thinking about these same type things, Felicity. Seems that the Father is encouraging His people toward endurance, huh?
For sure. It reminds me of our first nine years here in the US which were really tough. We were tempted to go back to the UK many times where at least we could earn a living, but felt no liberty to do that. We would have missed out on so much God is doing now if we had done so.
The only caveat is that you know you are where God wants you to be and not just staying in a situation out of misplaced loyalty.
Thank you for reminding us 🙂