Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs;…they shall afflict them four hundred years;... and afterward they shall come out with great substance" (Gen.
An assured part of God's pledged blessing to us is delay and suffering. A delay in Abram's own lifetime that seemed to put God's pledge beyond fulfillment was followed by seemingly unendurable delay of Abram's descendants. But it was only a delay: they “came out with great substance.”(Ex.12:36)The pledge was redeemed.
God is going to test me with delays; and with the delays will come suffering, but through it all stands God's pledge: His new covenant with me in Christ, and His inviolable promise of every lesser blessing that I need. The delay and the suffering are part of the promised blessing; let me praise Him for them today; and let me wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He will strengthen my heart.━C. G. Trumbull
Unanswered yet the prayer your lips have pleaded
In agony of heart these many years
Does faith begin to fail? Is hope departing
And think you all in vain those falling tears
Say not the Father hath not heard your prayer
You shall have your desire sometime, somewhere.
Unanswered yet? Nay do not say ungranted
Perhaps your work is not yet wholly done.
The work began when first your prayer was uttered
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning there
His glory you shall see sometime, somewhere.
Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered
Her feet are firmly planted on the Rock
Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted
Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock.
She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer
And cries, “It shall be done”–sometime, somewhere.
Miss Ophelia G. Browning