[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0322":3},"MARCH 22\r\nAnd 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\r\nwhich is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now corn, I will send thee into Egypt    (Acts 7.30, 32, 34).\r\nThat 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\r\n\r\nprivacy, growing in wisdom before He began His work. Dr. Jowett.\r\nGod 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\r\ntoo dull.\r\nThe hardest ingredient in suffering is often time. A short, sharp\r\npang is easily borne, but when a sorrow drags its weary way through long, monotonous years, and day after day returns with the same\r\ndull routine of hopeless agony, the heart loses its strength, and\r\nwithout the grace of God, is sure to sink into the very sullenness\r\nof despair. Joseph's was a long trial, and God often has to bum His lessons into the depths of our being by the fires of protracted\r\npain. \"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,\" but He\r\nknows how long, and like a true goldsmith He stops the fires the\r\nmoment 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\r\nof 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,\r\nwith adoring rapture, we shall say, \"AD things have worked together\r\nfor good.\" like Joseph, let us be more careful to learn all the\r\nlessons in the school of sorrow than we are anxious for the hour of\r\ndeliverance. There is a \"need-be\" for every lesson, and when we are\r\nready, our deliverance will surely come, and we shall find that we could not have stood in our place of higher service without the\r\nvery things that were taught us in the ordeal. God is educating us for the future, for higher service and nobler blessings; and if we\r\nhave the qualities that fit us for a throne, nothing can keep us\r\nfrom 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\r\nnever too late; learn to wait. --Selected.\r\nHe never comes too late; He knoweth what is best; Vex not thyself in vain; until He cometh--REST.\r\nDo not run impetuously before the Lord; learn to wait His time: the    minute-hand as well as the hour-hand must point the exact moment for action.",1783499792050]