Do you remember…? 

…that after Moses murdered an Egyptian he ran for his life and wound up in Midian, the backside of the desert? There, for forty years, God tutored Moses, developed him, tempered his will, and forged him into the man who would lead Israel out of captivity and to the Promised Land.  

Do you realize that while God was devoting His energies to craft Moses’ character, an entire generation of Israel died in Egypt doing hard labor?  

Do you remember the crippled beggar marooned at the temple gate? Peter and John took pity on the man, told him they had no money, but that they could provide healing in the name of Jesus Christ. They grasped him by the hand and pulled him to his feet. He followed them walking, leaping, and praising God. 

Do you recollect that the authorities took Peter and John into custody over their preaching and healing of this lame man? During their inquisition it came out that the man had been crippled for over forty years. That means Jesus walked past the man countless times on his way to the temple, but did not heal him.    

Do you recall that the Apostle Paul penned at least thirteen books of the New Testament? God used the systematic mind of this Pharisee converted to Christianity to articulate many of our foundational doctrines. 

Do you remember that right after his conversion Paul was led away by God—into the wilderness—for approximately seventeen years?  

Do you remember that Jesus’ formal ministry spanned only three years, but the first thing God did was lead him into the wilderness for forty days? 

Such inefficiency! What is God thinking? 

Next, asking what instead of why, and why that matters when it comes to circumstantial pressures.