445_God’s delays are not his absence Psalm 13 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me. A young girl planted a seed in a small pot on her windowsill. Each day, she watered the soil and sat by the pot, watching, waiting, expecting. When nothing happened even after a week, she grew restless. Two weeks in, still nothing. She tapped the soil, poked at it gently, and even tried moving the pot to different windows to catch better sunlight. Finally, she gave up. But her grandmother quietly continued to water it. A week later, a tiny green sprout appeared. The seed was never dead—it was just working in silence. Waiting for deliverance can be frustrating, sometimes agonizing. Especially when you feel forgotten. Especially when there is no answer, though you pray persistently, and trust God with your deepest desires. Yet heaven remains silent. Psalm 13 voices this cry. Four times in just two verses, David asks, “How long, O Lord?” The question breathes his feeling of abandonment. Like many of us, when God delays, David starts to wonder: Has God forgotten me? When we are overcome by our foes, we assume God isn’t listening. We confuse His silence for indifference and His delays for rejection. But Scripture repeatedly shows us that God’s delays are not His denials. Often, they are the sign of his deep, loving work in our lives, hidden beneath the surface, preparing us for something greater than we imagined. Jacob’s favorite son Joseph was sent dreams that prophesied his future greatness. He was favored with intelligence, charm, and administrative capacity. He was honest, diligent and obedient. Yet he was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and unjustly imprisoned. For years, his life seemed to spiral further away from God’s promises. Once, it looked like a break might come. He rightly interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker, and the cupbearer was restored to Pharaoh’s favor. But he forgot to intercede for Joseph’s release. Hope turned into disappointment. Two more years passed in that prison. From a human perspective, those years seem to be a waste, a cruel delay. Yet God had his great purposes. If released earlier, Joseph might have gone home to resume his life as a shepherd. But he was destined to save his clan, God’s chosen people, from extinction. During the years in Egypt, including his time in prison, Joseph learned the management of a large semi-royal household, the culture of the palace, the