Trust His Timing

Several years ago we had a cool “God moment” in the church we

pastored. A young couple who had been through severe struggles showed-up at our service at “just the right time,” even though they were late. You see, the husband had been in jail and had a severe alcohol problem. The wife had prayed him through and he was now free, clean and sober. They had been discussing the need to take their little ones to church, but prayed to find a church “where God was REAL.” That is, they wanted authentic Christianity.

They had driven by our building, but had misread the sign. As such, they showed-up about an hour late. As they walked into the sanctuary, I was apparently “on a role” in the middle of my sermon. “Make no mistake,” I shouted form the pulpit, “God is REAL in this place! God is REAL!” They looked at each other, smiled knowingly, and sat down. Later they told me it was at that moment that they knew they had found their church home.

They seemed late, but actually, they were right on time.

Our timing is often different from God's. Sometimes He's "late," and other times He seems "early." In truth, I "speak as a fool" since it's really WE who are early or late--never God. Still, He seems to be off from our limited perspective.

Recently, I got a call from a gentleman who had been looking for work for over a year. He had been unemployed, struggling with addiction, burdened by spiritual attack, and more. He had become negative and somewhat unresponsive to our counsel. Honestly, I had basically given up on him having success in much of his battle. Yet, months after all seemed loss, he called in an upbeat spirit telling me about his new "perfect" job offer. He was happy and shared a view of the dark past few months which was quite spiritually mature and balanced. "I had things to learn," he told me, "God's timing is good."

TRUSTING HIS TIMING

How about you? Do you find yourself feeling that God is too late or too early? A big part of the challenge we face as Christians is to synchronize our watches with God's. Mentally, we need to be prepared to change our expectations...truly, his timing is perfect.

To that end,

Pastor Joel