Offering the love of God to people who do not yet know that love can take time to reap its intended harvest. Those who have developed patience regarding God’s timing will see results not imagined by those who have not yet committed themselves to the patience required to reveal such love.

A man named John Woolman was part of the Quakers movement. He was regarded as a John the Baptist kind of man whose unusual appearance and actions were used by God to lay the foundation for the anti-slavery movement within the Quakers. 

As Woodman began his ministry the Quakers owned slaves. The Quakers needed convincing that slavery was an evil practice. Woolman spent 17 years riding up and down the East Coast on horseback attempting to convince other Quakers to abandon slavery and its evil practice.

Woolman died at the age of 51. At the time of his death, he had planted so many seeds of truth on both sides of the Atlantic that within a decade, slavery among the Quakers was gone.

In the 1980s, a black musician named Daryl Davis tried to understand the reasoning behind the hatred of the Klu Klux Klan. At personal risk, he began to befriend members of the Klan and even joined an all-white country band. In the process, he met the Imperial Wizard of the Klan named Roger Kelly. Davis spent years building a relationship with Kelly, establishing trust and, eventually, a friendship.

They ate meals together at each other’s homes while Davis listened to Kelly. He wanted to understand how a man could hate someone without knowing him as a person. Eventually, Kelly left the Klan and gave robes and hoods to Davis. After 30 years, Davis had convinced over 200 former Klan members to walk away from the group.

Some things God has us do require time to reveal the will of God. What we do for the Lord does not always release an immediate change in the behavior of other people. Over time, the love of God can overcome even the hardest of hearts. 

If you have such a calling from God, stay the course. Miracles of personal transformation are waiting to be released at the right time if we will commit to the process of loving others as God loves them even if our efforts require decades to produce its desired result.

“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage” (Psalms 27:14).