Why Delay?
Updated: August 6, 2025
Delay may be the biggest reason many people have given up on their faith. They pray, they don’t see the answer within a preconceived time frame, and so they conclude that God doesn’t answer their prayers, that He doesn’t want us to have the things we really desire, or that God doesn’t exist at all. In other words, their experience dictates their faith instead of the other way around.
This is a great tragedy. Growing in our faith inevitably involves navigating the distance between the moment we pray and the moment we see the answer. Who needs much faith for what they always receive instantly? Great faith is not moved by time. Jesus demonstrated that time is moved by great faith! By standing on God’s Word, knowing what God has promised us and refusing anything less, we will receive what we are believing for… if we don’t faint before we see the answer! The Bible says that it is by both faith and patience that we inherit the promises of God’s Word. You don’t need patience if there is never any delay.
Even Jesus experienced delay. He waited for most of the promises about Himself to be fulfilled in His life, waiting for about 30 years before receiving a public ministry. He waited to see those uneducated tradesmen (the Apostles) transform from cowards to powerful witnesses for Him. He waited through terrible emotional and physical suffering until He was finally raised from the dead and glorified. Some things just take time.
Often we don’t (or can’t) know why the answer is delayed. In the Bible we see examples where the answer took time to arrive while the praying person saw no outward indication that anything was happening. But does it really matter that we know why there’s a delay? Can we just leave all that to God and trust that He is bringing the answer? Like a baby in the womb or a potato crop, some answers require things to happen that we just won’t see.
God is not withholding things from you. He is holding things for you! The truth is that much of the failure we experience is the result of our ignorance of the Word of God and how to exercise our faith to get what we need. So don’t be discouraged when you don’t see the answer yet. If it seems like it’s taking too long, ask the Lord if there’s something hindering your faith, something that needs to be dealt with, or some reason why you haven’t got that whatever by now. This is what the disciples did: when they weren’t getting results, they asked Jesus about it. He worked with them to make them effective in prayer. The Holy Spirit is available and willing to do the same with each one of us if we will get as serious about this as they were!
(Mark 11:24, Hebrews 6:11-12, Daniel 10:12-13, Mark 4:25-29, Matthew 18:19, Psalm 37:4-5, Psalm 27:14, Proverbs 2:7, James 1:3-4)