God is never slow from His standpoint, but He is from ours, because rashness, impetuosity and doing things prematurely is a universal human weakness. It may not only be the result of our fallen condition, but one of the infirmities in our very nature as creatures, to be in a hurry. When we begin to learn the ways of God we have so many things to unlearn that there are some lessons which God does not begin teaching us till after we have passed the early stages of grace. One of these deeper lessons is that of moving very slowly with our Creator. It is not laziness, nor indifference, nor lagging behind; it is just the opposite of a dull, indolent and slovenly spirit. It is a disposition entirely wide-awake and prompt, and energetic to keep in the order of God’s will.  

1. God lives and moves in eternity, and every little detail in His working must be like Himself. It must have in it the majesty, the slow and measured movement, as well as the accuracy and promptness of infinite wisdom. When we deal with God we are not dealing with fussy, impetuous, short-sighted creatures.  

It is a great thing to really come to the knowledge as to Who God is, and how we are to behave toward Him. There is no hurry in a Being Who sees and knows everything from all eternity. True, God often acts instantaneously, but it is the instantaneousness of mature and boundless wisdom, and not the quickness of a creature’s hurry. It is also true that we are to “run the race set before us,” and “run in the way of God’s commandments,” but we are to run with all our faculties calmly collected, with thoughtful deliberation. Running with God is a slow walk with the creature. We are to let God do the swiftness and we do the slowness. The Holy Spirit tells us to “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” That is, swift to take in from God, but slow to give out the opinions, the dictates, the emotions of the creature.  

We can never walk with God until we learn to go slow, to take time to pray, to think twice before we speak once, to watch the pace of His guidance and measure our steps accordingly.  

Rebecca and Jacob were in a hurry to get God’s foreordained blessing from the lips of Isaac and paid the penalty of twenty years’ separation and sorrow. Peter lagged behind Christ at the trial before Pilate, but his very tardiness was the effect of his previous impetuosity in boasting of his fidelity. Had he gone slow in his avowals of heroism, and taken time to weigh his words, he would have gone faster and closer to the cross. The very recollection as to Who God is would spread over us as a thoughtful, slow, quiet movement in all our dealings with Him.  

2. We miss a great many things from God by not going slow enough with Him. It must be a secret joy in God to give Himself forth to those who love and appreciate Him, but God must always act like Himself. If we fail to move in harmony with His attributes and to get the things He wants to communicate in His own way, He cannot change His perfections to accommodate our whims. Even if He should undertake to impart Himself to us without regard to time and fitness, it would do us no good, for the very blessings of God, if not conferred in God’s way, would prove curses—like eating raw meat or green fruit.  

There are glimpses into God’s perfections, insight into wonderful truths, quiet unfoldings of daily opportunities, gentle checks of the Holy Spirit upon our decisions or words, sweet and secret inspirations to do certain things, the quiet solving of hard problems and mental articulations of special words of strength. These we often missed because we took our ear from God’s telephone a little too quick, or ran past the angle of vision, or wasted time by asking a question, or got in a feverish state of anxiety, or attempted to take God’s work in our own hands.  

There is no telling how much we have lost spiritually, mentally, financially and physically— and everlastingly lost—by not going slow with God. There is a time for everything in the universe to get ripe. All thoughts, words, prayers, actions, providences, opportunities, blessings, spiritual experiences, Divine revelations, all avocations, all dispensations, whether in nature, grace, or glory, have a time in which they get ripe. To go slow with God is the Heavenly pace that gathers up all things at the time they are ripe. What can be greater than to see God, or to hear Him speak, and we miss both by not going slow?  

3. Going slow with God is our greatest safety. It is dangerous to live with a thousand live wires around us, against which we may jostle at any time by not keeping calm and thoughtful in our movements. In factories of multiplied and complicated machinery, a man must needs move cautiously, especially when wheels, and bands, and electric motors, and sharp cutting instruments are running with lightning speed. A wrong step, or a foolish move of the hand, or a frightened, jerky movement may cause instant and horrible death.  

In many respects, we are moving amid just such unseen and complicated machinery, and walking quietly and slowly with God is the only safe way to escape the swift flying bands and pulleys of mighty laws, as well as demoniac snares.  

There are more religious delusions at the present day than since the fall of man, and every one of them could be traced to a rash, impetuous taking up with thoughts and things without taking time to wait on God in perfect humility and teachableness of spirit. Doctrines are formulated from one text of Scripture not half understood, while a dozen plain texts to the contrary receive no attention. New, wild, and extravagant teachers are rushed after like a Klondike goldfield. All sorts of pious fads, religious delusions, dreams, and visionary theories are hastily swallowed down without taking time for mental chewing, because people do not keep humble enough to watch God and trace His slow and peaceful footsteps.  

It is not merely going slow that is our safety, but it is loving to go slow; it is to lovingly prefer the deep, quiet, peaceful river of God’s life to the rushing, noisy, exciting and wild things which always characterize either man’s foolishness or the devil’s fire-works. The soul who has the Satanic itch of impatience in it will sooner or later champ the bit, break the traces or run over a precipice. The very center of the soul must be calm and peaceful, so that it can prefer God’s way of doing things, and God’s time of doing them. Did we ever have to repent for taking time to wait on God, and did we ever fail to repent for not taking time to work in His order?  

4. We must needs go slow with God in order to keep in a reverent and worshipful spirit. This is the way the saints have always turned their lives into a beautiful, continual worship of God by going slow enough to mix God in with everything and to tie all the events of life fast to His throne. We must refer all things to Him, and with the eye of thought looking up to His blessed face to dictate our services and our steps.  

Some people pray too fast to get any answer from God, like nervous children that rattle away at their parents so rapidly that their words are not intelligible. They must quiet down and talk slow enough to be understood before their wants or fears can be relieved.  

One of the curses put on Adam was that of “sweat,” which expresses the hurried, overheated or excited state of the body; and the Lord told Ezekiel that his priests must not enter the holy sanctuary with “woolen garments on them, or anything that would cause them to sweat,” because the God of eternal and unruffled peace wants us to worship Him with a calm, collected, reverent spirit, and not with the sweat of creature hurry in our minds.  

How can we speak to God in a reverent way or look to Him with adoring love when we have run ourselves into a feverish perspiration and precipitation of thought? Whatever we do accurately must take time and collectedness of mind. There is no accuracy in all the world like keeping company with God, and yet nothing so free from bondage or tediousness. By going slow with the Lord we accomplish more than by going with a rush, because what we do is done so much better, and does not have to be undone. It is done in a better spirit, with deeper motives, and bears fruit far out in the future, when all mushroom performances have been dissipated for ever.