While we mostly use writers here who have been featured before, every once in awhile we go ‘fishing’ so to speak, and today I feel like we struck gold. (If that isn’t the best example of a mixed metaphor, I don’t know what would beat it!)
Benjamin Moore is an MK (Missionary Kid) who clearly presents a subject here which confounds even seasoned, veteran Christ followers. Click the title header below to read at source, and then take a few minutes to check out the rest of his site, including articles written in Spanish.
God’s perfect timing
John 7: 6-8
Therefore Jesus told them,“ My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”
Do you know what the rarest resource is?
Time is our most precious gift. Once it’s gone it’s gone.
Every second that passes is another second you can’t get back no matter what.
We know this and I think that is why we try to hold on to it so tightly and control it.
It’s not ours to control
The reality is that it is God’s time, not ours.
Time belongs to Him. Notice Jesus says “My Time,” twice.
We work on his agenda, not the other way around.
I struggle with this. And I know I am not alone.
Look at Jesus’ Brothers.
Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. – John 7:3 (NIV)
In other words “Hey, Jesus, we think you need to go now”.
But it wasn’t up to them. It was up to Jesus.
And like His brothers, I am sure you struggle with this as well.
We like to play little gods and be in control of what happens and when it happens.
But that is God’s place.
You don’t have control, He does.
Even your days are numbered
Job 14:5-7 (NLV) A man’s days are numbered. You know the number of his months. He cannot live longer than the time You have set.
God is so in control of time that He has your days numbered.
It shouldn’t cause us stress but instead, it should move us into courage because when it’s your time it’s your time.
This is encouraging because now you don’t have to walk around frightened by the unknown because the unknown to us is laid out before God.
Give up control
Give up control is not what we like to hear. But just because you don’t like something doesn’t change the necessity for you to do it.
Stop trying to be in control of Time. It will only frustrate you. You will always come to the same conclusion. You can’t do anything about it.
You can try.
Turn back the hands on your clock but that doesn’t change anything. That will just make you late for work.
Time slips out of our hands like water and we are helpless to do anything about it.
God’s view of time is different
So as you give up control and as you wait, its good to know how God views time.
2 Peter 3:8 (NIV) But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
God is not bound by time like we are.
He is not restricted by it.
So He is never in a hurry to do something.
God’s calendar only has one square on it and it’s labeled eternity.
2 Peter 3:9 (NIV) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Notice this crazy insight Peter gives us into how God’s sees time. And the Psalmist actually said it before him.
Psalm 90:4 (NIV) A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
Based on this we just can’t expect God to see things the way we do.
Can you imagine what God thinks we say things like I running out of time?
God’s time is perfect
Good thing for us God’s timing is always perfect.
We might feel like time is running out but God knows when it will be the best time for His plans to take place.
Just think of Jesus birth and how it was predicted thousands of years before He was born.
When the fullness of the time had come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Gal 4:4).
When the fullness of time = God’s perfect timing.
The Jews were coming under the dominion and taxation of a foreign power. Strangers were beginning to rule over them. They had no longer an independent government of their own. The “due time” had come for the promised Messiah to appear. Augustus taxes “the world,” and at once Christ is born. (J.C. RYLE – John Charles Ryle was an English Evangelical Anglican bishop)
The whole civilized earth was at length governed by one master (Daniel 2:40). (J.C. RYLE)
There was nothing to prevent the preacher of a new faith going from city to city and country to country. (J.C. RYLE)
So if you are in a time of waiting don’t worry because God’s timing is always perfect.
- He’s never late.
- He’s always on time.
- Keep waiting.
- Keep trusting.
He hasn’t forgotten you.
Christianity 201 
Leave a Reply