在苦難中最難受的成分常是時間。短而急的痛苦易受，長而慢的痛苦難當。有時候我們的痛苦纏綿數年；一天一天過去，並沒有得到輕減; 那時候我們的力量會失去。如果沒有神的恩典，我們定規會沉入絕境。約瑟的試煉是一個長時期的，到了時候，他成了何等樣人！
神常藉火把祂的功課燒在我們的最深處。「祂必坐下如煉淨銀子的」（聖經瑪拉基書三章 3 節），祂知道該煉多少時候；像銀匠一般，祂一看見銀子煉得能照見祂的形像時，便立即把火停止。
現在我們雖然看不見神的美意，也看不見將來榮耀的結果；但是信心知道神是不會錯誤的，祂叫「萬事都互相效力，叫愛神的人得益處」（聖經羅馬書八章 28 節）。讓我們像約瑟一樣，在神苦難的學校中用心學習一切的課程，不盼望立時的拯救。
每一課都是必需的，我們學會了，拯救自然會來的；那時我們就要看見：如果沒有在試煉中受過教育，我們決不能站在更大的工場上擔任更重要的工作。
所以，親愛的讀者，神現在訓練我們，是為著我們的將來 ── 將來更大的事奉和更多的祝福。如果我們有資格可以坐寶座了，神的拯救就來了，那時候沒有東西能再攔阻我們。但願我們不去奪神手中的明天，給神充分的時間來栽培我們。祂絕不會來得太遲的，學習耐心等候吧！ ── 選
不要性急地跑在神前面，要學習等候祂的時間。鐘錶上的分針和時針的走動，都有它們一定的規律。
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"And 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 which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt."(Acts 7:30, 31, 34.)
THAT 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 privacy, growing in wisdom before he began His work. --- Dr. Jowett.
God 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 too dull.
The hardest ingredient in suffering is often time. A short, sharp pang is easily borne, but when a sorrow drags its weary way through long, monotonous years, and day after day returns with the same dull routine of hopeless agony, the heart loses its strength, and without the grace of God, is sure to sink into the very sullenness of despair. Joseph's was a long trial, and God often has to burn his lessons into the depths of our being by the fires of protracted pain. "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver," but He knows how long, and like a true goldsmith He stops the fires the moment 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 of 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, with adoring rapture, we shall say, "All things have worked together for good." Like Joseph, let us be more careful to learn all the lessons in the school of sorrow than we are anxious for the hour of deliverance.
There is a "need-be" for every lesson, and when we are ready, our deliverance will surely come, and we shall find that we could not have stood in our place of higher service without the very things that were taught us in the ordeal. God is educating us for the future, for higher service and nobler blessings; and if we have the qualities that fit us for a throne, nothing can keep us from 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 never too late; learn to wait.--- Selected.
Do 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.