His Plan - His Way - His Time . . . He's All

Charles Spurgeon said:

I will deliver you. (Psalm 50:15). This text is plain enough, but whether deliverance will be tomorrow, next week, or next year is not clear. You are in a great hurry, but the Lord is not. Your trial may not have produced all the good that it was sent to do, and thus it must last longer. 

When gold is thrown into the refining pot, it might cry to the goldsmith, "Let me out."
"No," says the goldsmith. "You still have dross. You must remain in the fire until I have purified you." 

God may subject you to many trials, but when He says, "I will deliver you," depend on it. God keeps His Word! . . . "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you." This is tantamount to deliverance already received. It means "If I do not deliver you now, I will deliver you at a time that is better than now." 

The Lord is always punctual. You will never be kept waiting by Him. You have kept Him waiting, but He is prompt to the second. He never keeps His servants waiting one single tick of the clock beyond His own appointed, wise, and proper moment. Therefore, be of good courage. God Himself will rescue those who call on Him . . .  

God has a motive! His thoughts are working to give you a future and a hope - Jeremiah 29:11. All things are working for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose Romans 8:28. 

We see only the beginning; God sees the end from the beginning. We spell the alphabet - alpha, beta, gamma . . . but from alpha to omega, God reads all at once. He knows every letter in the Book of Providence. He sees not only what He is doing, but also the final results. 

God sees your present pain and grief. He also sees the future joy and the usefulness that will come from this affliction. He observes not only the plow tearing the soil, but also a golden harvest clothing that soil. He sees the consequences of affliction and knows that it will lead to much blessed happiness. 

"Beloved, now are we the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be," 1 John 3:2. 

You never see the Great Artist's masterpiece. You only see the rough marble and mark the chips that fall to the ground. You have felt the edge of His chisel; you know the weight of His hammer. If you could see the glorious image as it will be when He has put the finishing blows to it, you would better understand the chisel, the hammer, and the Artist.

Charles Spurgeon, Beside Still Waters (Nashville:  Thomas Nelson, 1999), 351-352.