The Spiritual Value of Delay
Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many spiritual truths to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we seek to understand the spiritual value of delay.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Spiritual Value of Delay
"Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James, Chapter 1, Verses 3 and 4
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast we consider the spiritual value and meaning of delay. Delay is one of the vexing problems that we have to contend with at almost every turn of our brief mortal life. But we shall see that delay is not always a bad thing even in the mortal life, and from the spiritual perspective delay is always a good thing. Delay is often a hard thing for us to bear, but we have spiritual weapons that are more than adequate for the test, weapons that will maintain our joy and tranquility of spirit without causing us to, as it were, "bust a gut."
The main weapon that we use with delay is patience. This divine quality effectively copes with delay if we exercise it. From a practical viewpoint, all of the emotional upset, the chaffing at the bit, not to mention our obsessive thinking will not erase a delay. There is always a reason for it. By the time we experience the delay, the forces that caused it have already been unleashed. These forces must run their course, until other forces move in to eradicate the cause of the delay.
We can see a clear example of this in our everyday life. Sometimes accidents occur on highways and they cause traffic to stop flowing. Sometimes these accidents shut down both lanes of the interstate highway, bringing all traffic in that direction to a stop. These accidents can cause hours of delay before the lanes can be cleared and the flow of traffic can resume. No amount of impatience can expedite this process.
Other examples of delay that are positive are very familiar to all of us. Traffic lights cause delays that allows for safe passage through busy intersections. If you are waiting for the light to turn green, you can see the cars moving through the green light. If it were not for the alternate periods of delay at a busy intersection, we would have chaos and many tragic accidents. In this situation, while we may not like the delays of waiting at a traffic light, we can appreciate the value of waiting.
There have also been cases where delay has literally saved the life of certain individuals. The most prominent example of this is the occasion where someone misses their flight because of a delay. Sometimes this flight has gone on to having a catastrophic disaster, killing all on board. The person who missed the flight is now thankful that there was a delay. And there are other such situations we could recite.
There are some delays that are more subtle in their positive effects, and these effects may not be viewed as positive until the experience has been completed. Sometimes we are involved in an experience that appears to drag on interminably. It appears that whatever value the experience had has been realized, no further meanings provided. And at such times we are tempted to prematurely end the experience by cutting it short. This, however, is unwise. When Jesus lived on earth, he waited until he was 33 before beginning his public ministry. It took him that long to prepare. And while he waited, he grew and perfected his human character, thus being able to reveal the heavenly Father to all of us. And since no experience occurs in isolation, there are certain other factors that had to be aligned before he could actually begin the his spiritual mission.
But from the spiritual perspective, it is not strange that we have delays. We are living in a time-space universe. And everything in time and space is characterized by delay. Nothing in the time-space universe is complete. Everything grows, and this growth process means delays. The activities taking place in time and space are the reflections of the activities taking place in eternity. The time-space activities must synchronize themselves with the cycles of eternity. This technique of using time and space to reveal the realities of eternity is one of the techniques that the Father uses to escape from the all-encompassing absoluteness of eternity and infinity. From the absolute eternity and infinity point-of-view, everything that was, is, or could ever be already exists.
By using the technique of time and space, the Father is able to escape the solitary confinements of absolute unqualified eternity and infinity. He is able to view and participate in the unfolding of eternity and infinity in time and space. The fact that this can never completely happen in time and space does not destroy the value of it for the Father, just as the never-ending experience that we have does not destroy the value of having the experiences, even though while there may be an end to one experience and the beginning of another, there really is no end to the experiences of a time-space creature.
And the Father can participate in the time-space experience of his children. He can guide and direct them, and experience their growth from incompleteness to completeness, from imperfection to perfection. By His spirit He can participate and view all of the intermediate products of growth. He can know the satisfaction of growth and success of His children, even as we as mortal parents can follow and know the success of our mortal children.
And so with us, even though we experience delay in our growth process, we can experience the spirit of the success of the goal we are trying to reach. We can even experience the spirit of future achievement. We see this when we experience the fruits of the spirit. Even though our status is mortal, we can experience the spiritual qualities of another life. With the spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Truth, we can even experience the spirit of our union with our divine spirit while yet living the life of the flesh. We can become one with the Father through the spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Truth.
This concludes today's message on understanding the spiritual value of delay. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
The Spiritual Value of Delay
