Perfect timing.

Faith is sometimes crazy hard to keep strong when you expect something to happen at a certain time, and it doesn't. I usually struggle with thoughts of, 'well, God hasn't done this yet, so maybe I heard wrong. Maybe it's not supposed to happen. Maybe it's just my hope, not his will.'. And while that may be true in some cases, in some, it probably isn't. I am giving up because things are not happening in my timing, but perhaps my timing is different than God's.
I was reading in Exodus today, and chapter 23, God is telling the people of Israel that he will send his angel before them, and he will send hornets before the children of Israel to drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before them. I'm sure that the Israelites would have expected God to do that quickly. They saw his power in Egypt, and knew what he could do to drive out the inhabitants of the promised land.
But then God adds a bit of a disclaimer. In verses 29-30, he says, "I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased and inherit the land."
I doubt a lot of the Israelites were too pleased to hear this. I think I would have been. Why take a long time to rid the land of the heathens when God could do it in a couple of days? And he wouldn't have to even take that long. I mean, the soldiers could have gone in, they could have had a couple of battles, then the land would belong to God's children, instead of waiting longer, and having so many battles.
But that is me as a human talking. What I love about these verses is that God explains himself. There is nothing at all that makes it so that God has to explain himself to humans. He didn't even have to give them an idea of what his timing was going to be. He could have said, "You're going to get this land, but you're just going to have to be patient and I'll get around to it eventually." But he had a definite reason for why he was not going to quickly empty the land. He loved his people, and he knew that in the long run, it would hurt them to be given so much land to care for at one time. And he explained it to them.
Maybe what you're waiting for is God's will. Maybe you heard him right, and he wants to give whatever it is to you. But perhaps he is waiting until you are able to handle it. Maybe you have to move into it slowly or there will be negative consequences even though you have what you wanted to have.
Keep trusting and believing. Ask God to help you understand his timing. Ask him to prepare you. The Israelite nation had to increase in numbers before they were able to have the whole land. It could be that something in your life needs to change before you can move forward. And also pray that God would reveal to you if this is really his will. Are you waiting for something that's of him, or something that is of you? If it is of you, you probably do need to move on. But if it is from him, you need to continue to trust in him, and wait on his timing, and follow his direction in the meantime.