The Timing of God

My son, Josh, made the following observation on Facebook yesterday and I told him I was going to borrow it for today's blog post.

"You can be the best hunter in the world, but if there are no deer where you are then it doesn't matter.  You can be the best hunter in the world, but if you arrive in the field at the wrong time then it doesn't matter.  You may feel your God-given talents are pointless and wasted. Remember that you may be waiting to be in the right place and season." (Joshua Ellis)

When I read this, I thought of Joseph, being given dreams of ruling over his brothers, only to find himself in a prison cell in Egypt.  All the promises of God seemed to be made null and void. He was not in a position to even imagine all God still had in store for him.  He had to wait for the right season.

I thought of David, being anointed to be king over Israel, running for his life as he fled from King Saul.  Did he question the truth of Samuel the prophet's words over him as a young boy as he faced all the adversity? In God's timing, he took his rightful place.

There are some seasons in our lives that are extremely frustrating.  Sometimes we wonder where God is in the middle of our troubles.  There was a period of about four years in my life when we were under extreme financial stress.  We had just moved to Virginia and my husband was only able to find temporary work.  Within a few months, he developed some health issues that kept him from working at all.   We were paying a mortgage payment on the house in West Virginia that we were trying to sell as well as a rent payment in our new home.  There were times when our grocery budget was less than $25 a week.  From a spiritual standpoint, we were doing all we knew how to do, but month after month, things grew more difficult.  During that time, through all the ups and downs, my faith in God grew in a way that it never had before.  It's easy to trust God when life is going well - a real challenge when circumstances are burdensome.  I wouldn't want to go through that series of events ever again in my life, but I wouldn't go back and change a single thing about that time because God became even sweeter to me in the middle of all of it.  I learned to trust and I watched as He provided my needs in ways that even today, I don't fully understand.

I wrote on my church's Facebook page one day in the worst of the financial mess that I was in:

"I have learned so much in the last year about faith and patience, about waiting on God, about trusting His timing.  There are situations that I wanted Him to handle differently, but now I can see the "why" of the way things have played out - the other people He wanted to bless in a situation that I thought was mine alone.  Everything we need God to do in our lives also touches the lives of others.  Only He sees the big picture.  Thank God that He IS God."

The seven years of waiting to sell that West Virginia house ended up being a blessing to the family who purchased it while it taught me to wait and trust.  A car that we wanted to sell when it became too difficult to maintain two vehicles finally sold to someone in our church who needed it at just the right time for him - weeks after I thought it should have already been sold.  God's timing is perfect though we may not always agree with how it unfolds.  It's not all about us - it's about Him.

Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!"

Whether you are waiting for a financial breakthrough, a ministry opportunity, a restored relationship, a healed body or for an outlet for all your gifts and talents to be used or noticed, waiting on the timing of the Lord is the sure way to know that all is being done His way and for His glory.


Photo by Jim Fawns from Pexels