Delay is not denial. Uh! but God never delays His promise

“Delay is not denial” is a common phrase used to cheer people who are yet to receive answers to their prayers. One day, I read a tweet by a prominent pastor on Twitter, he wrote, “Delay is not denial.”

At first, when I read the tweet, I was like, “Yeah that’s right,” although I have heard people say that phrase multiple times, and I have even said it a couple of times too.

But this time, as I read the words again, ‘Delay is not denial’, I heard a voice within me that said, “God never delays his promise.” I was like, oh really? but this phrase is gotten from the scriptures, so I thought.

Then I decided to search through the scriptures to ascertain the inner voice I heard. Over time, I have learned that every message given to us through revelation, vision, dreams etc. must conform to the word of God.

I believe if it’s from the Holy Spirit, it will not be contrary to the written word of God. This is because there are false spirits that do speak to us and we mustn’t confuse them with the voice of the Holy Spirit.

So let the word of God be our only source of all truth.

When God says ‘I never delay my promise’ — that’s absolutely true as confirmed from the scriptures. Although the phrase ‘do not delay’ or ‘will not delay’ is a used couple of times in the scriptures (New International version).

But let’s look at 3 instances those phrases were used and what they meant;

Instance one

All good promises declared by God will not delay. Because when God make promises to save, guide and bless, He made it clear that He will never delay as written in the scriptures;

“I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendour to Israel.” (Isaiah 46:13)

“For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” (Habakkuk 2:3)

“For in just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.” (Hebrew 10:37)

Instance two

The phrase, ‘do not delay’ was used by men praying to God in desperate situations, as we see in the scriptures below;

“But as for me, I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay.” (Psalm 70:5)

“But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay.” (Psalm 40:17)

“Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” (Daniel 9:19)

Instance three

The only time, God delays or is slow to act is to allow His mercy to linger longer when we deserve punishment. His delay is to give enough time for repentance as seen in the scriptures;

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

“Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled, declares the Sovereign LORD.’” (Ezekiel 12:28)

“And he swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay!” Revelation 10:6

From the above, we can see God’s delay is used only to divert God’s wrath from us. However, He never delays His salvation, guidance and blessing to us, not a bit.

Let’s be clear on what the word ‘delay’ really mean here, if He says I will give you something at 12.00 pm, and you received it at 12:05 pm, then you can say there was a 5 minutes delay.

However, God will not say 12:00 pm and come 11:59 am or 12:01 pm, not a second earlier or late. When God says 12:00 pm it’s 12:00 pm. God is the perfect supreme being, He is not a man that forgets or make mistake.

Most often, when God gives us His promise He doesn’t give any specific time, and I believe He does that to build our patience and trust in Him. The moment He gave the promise, He knew the exact time it will be fulfilled.

But the challenge is we often assume a time that the promise should be fulfilled, and when it doesn’t meet our expectations we cry out, feeling disappointed of being delayed or worst — that our prayers were not answered.

Know this, God always answers our prayers in one way or the other. I believe some of us block our minds to only hear the answer we want to hear. There are 3 notable ways God answer our prayer;

1. Yes, you will have it at this specific time

2. No, you don’t need this

3. Yes but wait, be patient and trust Me (no time is given)

Answer (1) is the one every Christian loves to hear all the time. We are happy when we pray for something and immediately we receive our request or at the time we expected it or God gives us a specific time when it will happen and it happens at that exact time.

Oh! how we wish all our prayers are answered like this all the time. But If that’s the case, then the word ‘patience’ and ‘trust’ will not be needed, because we already know what and when to expect it.

Answer (2), is what we don’t want to hear because it’s not our will even when we say we want God’s will. Then we keep on praying for the same thing over and over again and when we get to the point our prayer request isn’t granted, we become angry with God that He didn’t answer our prayer.

Well, He did, but we weren’t listening or willing to accept the answer He gave us. I understand nobody likes to hear no, but when God says no, we should rest assured it’s for our good because He has already promised us all things work together for our good (Roman 8:28).

Answer (3) is the most common response to our prayer, God says yes but He wants us to wait till an unknown time but known to Him.

The wait time is not an idle or delay time, but a time He equips us with the necessary skills, character, and maturity we need to carry out our prayer request.

A short story

Some time ago, a 12-year-old girl saw a beautiful wedding gown she admired so much, she asked her parents to purchase the gown for her because she knew they could afford it but they told her to wait till the right time and she asked when?

Her parents promised to buy her the wedding gown but couldn’t give her a specific time she will receive her gift because that depends on when she is mature and meets a man who engages her.

In this story, can we say the girl’s parent delayed the girl’s request? Not at all.

In the same way, our prayer request may be as this 12-year-old girl and God says ‘Wait’ because He knows we don’t need it at the time we asked for it.

Besides, there are other aspects of our lives we need to focus on first before we get our request granted.

Let’s just imagine, due to much pressure from the girl, the parents bought the wedding gown for her at 12 years old and she got engaged at age 22, which means it took 10 years before she could use the gown and most likely her fashion taste might be different now.

And also, at 22, she may not desire the gown as she used to. Unfortunately, she can’t return the gown in exchange for another due to the time and her parents spent a fortune to purchase it — she has to wear it because she can’t afford a new one.

Now, the question on her mind will be “Why didn’t I wait for the right time?”

To wrap this up, when God says wait, this means He would faithfully fulfil our request because when the time is perfect, there can’t be any delay.

I believe instead of saying ‘Delay is not denial’ the appropriate phrase to use is “To wait is not denial.”