How Long?

In the midst of a trial, we are often tempted to cry out, “Lord, how long?” We think if we only knew when the ending would be, the pain or sorrow or struggle would be more bearable. This is how David must have felt when he penned Psalm 13:

“How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.” (vv.1-4)

We often long for God to tell us the exact duration of the trial, as if counting days is the solution to our discomfort. But all too often, the withholding of timing is an act of mercy towards us.

When I look back on the times in life when the trial seemed too hard, and I longed for just a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel, I know that the reality of God’s timing would have seemed unendurable.

We want to know how many days the trial will last, but perhaps the trial is not to be counted in days, but years. The knowledge of this would overwhelm and dishearten us, but to have only the knowledge that today, we are under a trial, today we have only the Lord to cling to—that often is far easier to bear.

The very uncertainties God allows in our lives are there to remove the things that keep us from fully trusting Him. David knew this as well, for his desperate cry of “How long?” ends in the hope of a heart stayed on the trustworthiness of God:

“But I have trusted in Thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.

I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me.” (vv.5-6)

Like seasons of joy, seasons of trial have no expiration date from our side of things—we cannot know how long a particular season will last. But we can know for certain that God has a good and perfect plan for our trials. We can know for certain that our difficult seasons of life will come to an end.

Your season of struggle may be over next week, or next month or next year—or it may last until your are called home to heaven. Only God knows the timing of His plans for you, and as much as you or I might cry out with David, “How long, O Lord?” we also can rest and rejoice in the knowledge that this earthly life with all its trials and struggles, loss and pain, is only for a season.

At just the right time, whether through death or the rapture, you and I will one day leave this life behind and enter into the presence of the Lord, there to rejoice and delight in Him throughout eternity.

Seasons of sorrow and struggle may seem to stretch on forever, but for the Christian, the only season that has no end is our life with God in heaven!

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” 

Revelation 21:3-4