「滿了四十年，在西乃山的曠野，有一位天使在荊棘火焰中向摩西顯現。...有主的聲音說，“我的百姓在埃及所受的苦害，我實在看見了，他們的歎息，我也聽見了，我下來要救他們。現在你來，我要差你往埃及去。”」－使徒行傳7:30-31,34
有時神似乎遲延，祂其實並未停下工作，祂正在等待器皿的預備；等到時機成熟，他們就要起身承擔託付。
即便是拿撒勒人耶穌，也必須經過三十年在隱密中的預備，等到智慧和身量長得完全，祂才開始工作。－喬懷德
神從來不性急；祂很樂意長期的等待祂的器皿成熟，合乎祂的使用，祂從不覺得預備的時間太過漫長，太過枯燥。
苦難中最痛苦的一部份是時間。
短痛只要咬緊牙關，轉眼就要過去；若沒有神的恩典，長痛將會使我們陷入絕境，有如經歷約瑟漫無止境的試煉。
神常常用細火，慢慢的將祂的功課一點一滴的燒進我們的血脈裡，令我們刻骨銘心。
現今我們或許看不見神在我們身上美麗製作的結果；所有神的苦心都隱蔽在祂的愛手中。
但信心知道神正坐在寶座上，安然等待榮耀的結果。到了那時，我們就要狂喜雀躍，滿心喜樂的高喊：「萬有都互相效力，叫愛神的人得益處」（羅馬書8:28）。
親愛的，為了將來的榮耀，神現今正訓練我們進入更深的事奉，以得更大的祝福；若我們一切都預備好了，神的時間也已來到，誰也不能攔阻我們登上寶座。－選
"And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush?saying?I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt" (Acts 7:30, 32, 34).That was a long wait in preparation for a great mission. When God delays, He is not inactive. He is getting ready His instruments, He is ripening our powers; and at the appointed moment we shall arise equal to our task. Even Jesus of Nazareth was thirty years in privacy, growing in wisdom before He began His work. --Dr. Jowett
God is never in a hurry but spends years with those He expects to greatly use. He never thinks the days of preparation too long or too dull.
The hardest ingredient in suffering is often time. A short, sharp pang is easily borne, but when a sorrow drags its weary way through long, monotonous years, and day after day returns with the same dull routine of hopeless agony, the heart loses its strength, and without the grace of God, is sure to sink into the very sullenness of despair. Joseph's was a long trial, and God often has to burn His lessons into the depths of our being by the fires of protracted pain. "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver," but He knows how long, and like a true goldsmith He stops the fires the moment He sees His image in the glowing metal. We may not see now the outcome of the beautiful plan which God is hiding in the shadow of His hand; it yet may be long concealed; but faith may be sure that He is sitting on the throne, calmly waiting the hour when, with adoring rapture, we shall say, "All things have worked together for good." Like Joseph, let us be more careful to learn all the lessons in the school of sorrow than we are anxious for the hour of deliverance. There is a "need-be" for every lesson, and when we are ready, our deliverance will surely come, and we shall find that we could not have stood in our place of higher service without the very things that were taught us in the ordeal. God is educating us for the future, for higher service and nobler blessings; and if we have the qualities that fit us for a throne, nothing can keep us from it when God's time has come. Don't steal tomorrow out of God's hands. Give God time to speak to you and reveal His will. He is never too late; learn to wait. --Selected
