He Has Set the Right Time for Everything. He Has Given Us A Desire to Know the Future, But Never Gives Us the Satisfaction of Fully Understanding What He Does.” “God Is Not in A Hurry. We Are. It is Why We are Tired, Anxious, Stressed and Worried
When Trouble Multiplies, Grace Magnifies. When we give God all we have in facing our troubles, we will learn where our strength ends and His begin. We may have weaknesses, but God has strength. We may have sin, but God has grace. We may fail, but God remains faithful! We may have been unworthy, unfaithful, unmerciful, unteachable, unwilling, & unwise. If it seems like your troubles are multiplying, know that God's Grace abounds. We often hear the cliche "when it rains it pours" it appear that everything around us is falling apart all at once. The Moment you are ready to quit is usually the Moment right before the Miracle happens. Do not give up. God's whisper of comfort quiets the noise of our trials. When we know that God’s hand is in everything, we can leave everything in God’s hand. " My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9.
The Bottom Line to Every Prayer Should be, "Your Will Be Done. "Our prayers often revolve around asking God to hurry up and bless what we want to do. We can pray with David "Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly" (Ps. 5:3 NLT). We can trust His response, even if it does not come in the time we expect. David recognized why he had to wait on the Lord. First, his salvation came from Him (Ps.62:1). He learned that no one else could deliver him. His only hope was in God (v.5), for God alone hears our prayers (v.8). "Not my will Lord, but Your will be done."
There are times when we do not know why some things happened (good or bad). Trusting God in these kinds of times is what faith is all about. Jesus’ walk was hard, but He kept on... you can keep on too! Your faith must not be an afterthought; it is your most prize possession. Nurture and exercise it with passion! Father help us to be Christians with a faith that is contagious and courageous. Through all our pain and joy, my God, you were there. You never left us alone. That is why we must dance in the Spirit! Pause and thank God for the countless blessings He has bestowed upon you. Feel that peace? That is God's hand on you. He is the God of wholeness and restoration once you step into Him. We must consume His Word daily. This world is a battlefield; therefore, we are walking onto a battlefield in our daily lives. Jesus Christ is the magnet who holds us all in place. The vertical forgiveness is that which we receive from our gracious God and the horizontal forgiveness is that which we extend to others in His name. Follow Christ, He will lead you through the hardships of life. Just Follow Him!
Whoever you are, whatever condition you have, circumstances past or present Jesus can restore you to wholeness. God does not force Himself upon us; we must claim our salvation willingly. Everything comes together when we learn how to spend time with God! Sometimes I must lock the door and get to a place where nothing matters but Jesus and me. Sometimes, we must leave some stuff behind, to get to the next level. There is no problem that God cannot solve. There is no place better to be than to be in the "Rest" of God. With God, our load is light!
Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what He does.” (GNT)
A portion out of Ecclesiastes 3:11 that I have gone back to as an anchor so many times to interpret what God was doing or seemed like He was not doing in my life says this: “He has made everything beautiful in its time…”
Problem is, we get Ugly while waiting for God to make everything Beautiful in its time!
Shall we be honest? Our tempers flare, we get discouraged and depressed, and certainly our faith begins to waver, while our doubts remain steadfast, then of course unbelief snuggles up next to us every night closer than our pillows and covers. Our attitudes go through a period of needing some serious adjusting and resetting. Our speech and thoughts become negative and pessimistic. Jealousy and envy and coveting rear their ugly heads, because now we believe God has favorites and we have clearly not made the cut to be on His team. Resentment, bitterness, and anger all become a part of our daily garments as much as our pants, shirts and shoes are. And dare we even began to talk about our ‘Sarah Complex’ of attempting to help God out with a back-up plan since He obviously has no idea that His plan A has some glitches in it that need to be worked out!
In a nutshell, it simply becomes a very Ugly time while waiting for something Beautiful to happen!
You see, it all kind of goes with that fullness of time principle the Bible talks about when it refers to the coming of Christ in these words: “But when the right time finally came, God sent His own Son…” (Galatians 4:4 GNT) God even waited for the right time to send His own Son to save us! You know, I am starting to think that God has a thing about this whole ‘Timing’ bit!
And do you know why I say that? Well, just look at how other translations state this Scripture:
“BUT WHEN THE TIME ARRIVED THAT WAS SET BY GOD THE FATHER, GOD SENT HIS SON…” (MSG).
Even with something as important, urgent, and vital as our salvation, God still waited for the right, set time to fully arrive in His plan before He sent His Son. And if He waits for the right timing for that, He will wait for the right timing concerning all things concerning us! Like it or not my friend, but you may be in hurry, BUT GOD’S NOT! He is waiting for the Fullness of time! And the word “fullness” is defined as “after a due length of time has elapsed; filled; containing all that can be held; filled to the utmost; filled; perfectness; wholeness; and entire.” In other words, God is waiting for the absolute perfect timing to bring things to pass in your life, and when it does come, it will be more than you could have asked, dreamed or imagined (Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]—” AMPC).
Just think about, when the time fully came for Him to send His Son, did we lack anything in receiving Him? Absolutely not! In fact, yes, He came to save us, but we received so much more than just salvation, we have been saved, healed, delivered, redeemed, justified, consecrated, gifted, anointed, protected, provided for, and still have so many more promises of God that have not been delivered to us yet! Listen, when you wait for God to do it in His timing and in His way, according to His plan, you will receive perfected promises! You simply cannot go wrong with that!
But again, the problem for us is that little phrase concerning the waiting periods of our life: “In the fullness of time, God…” Which means you my friend will have to wait! But will your waiting be in vain? Absolutely not!
What you are waiting on is also waiting on you! You are excited about it, and it is excited about you! “…It aches for the coming – it can hardly wait!” The promise and vision are just as on high alert as you are in expectation of their arrival…BUT you have got to wait, because it will only come “…right on time.”
Even when it seems slow, wait, do not attempt to rush God! And in those moments when you feel the need to, remember King Saul:
1 Samuel 13:8-14, “He WAITED seven days, THE TIME SET BY SAMUEL. Samuel failed to show up at Gilgal, and the soldiers were slipping away, right, and left. So, Saul took charge: “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!” He went ahead and sacrificed the burnt offering. NO SOONER HAD HE DONE IT THAN SAMUEL SHOWED UP! Saul greeted him. Samuel said, “What on earth are you doing?” Saul answered, “When I saw I was losing my army from under me, and that you hadn’t come when you said you would, and that the Philistines were poised at Micmash, I said, ‘The Philistines are about to come down on me in Gilgal, and I haven’t yet come before God asking for his help.’ SO, I TOOK THINGS INTO MY OWN HANDS, and sacrificed the burnt offering.” “That was a fool thing to do,” Samuel said to Saul. “IF YOU HAD KEPT THE APPOINTMENT THAT YOUR GOD COMMANDED, by now God would have set a firm and lasting foundation under your kingly rule over Israel. As it is, your kingly rule is already falling to pieces. God is out looking for your replacement right now. This time he will do the choosing. When he finds him, he will appoint him leader of his people. AND ALL BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T KEEP YOUR APPOINTMENT WITH GOD!” (MSG)
People of God, you do not want to lose everything because you could not wait! Do not attempt to take things into your own hands. If God set a date and a time, wait for it to come to pass no matter how slow the timing may be. Saul could have kept his kingdom generation after generation, and yet because of one fool move of moving outside of the set timing, he lost everything and was replaced! Listen, for the record, God knows what He is doing and does not need your assistance at all!
Jeremiah 29:10-11, “This is God’s Word on the subject…I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING. I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” (MSG) God knows what He is doing, His plan is fool proof, now just make sure you are not acting the fool to mess it up!
You know, I heard about a pastor not too long ago whose secretary walked into his office, and she found him pacing back and forth, which was not what he usually did in his office. She said, “Hey, what’s the matter.” He said, “I’m in a hurry and God isn’t.” Did you ever feel that way? You say, “Well, that’s my life right now. I’m in a hurry and God isn’t.” And maybe you are asking, “Where is that answer? What is taking so long? God are You not listening to my prayers? Didn’t you hear me tell you about the urgency of the matter? The rent/mortgage/car note/ car insurance and tuition are all due on the same day! I need gas money, they are about to turn off the water, gas, and electricity if miracle funds are not deposited in my bank account by 5pm today! The doctor said if this last treatment does not go well, that is it, there is nothing else he can do! God, they have already laid off 5 people from my department and they are not done yet…what are You going to do? God, we need groceries, the kids need money for their school trip, Tommy needs braces and Tina needs glasses, and I need the money to pay for it all! God the child support is about to put my paycheck on life support! God if you do not step in today, we will be getting divorced tomorrow! God are You listening? God do You even care? God what are You waiting for? God when are You going to move?”
Ever been there? Are you there right now?
Learn how to worship instead of worry, turn your worry into worship. You see Worship Is Based in Who God Is While Praise Is Based in What He Does. Praise Is About God, Worship Is to God. Praise Is Opening Up, Worship Is Entering In.
We Need to Allow Our Praise to Be the Evidence That We Trust God’s Outcome Before We Even Come Out.
Well, God is following a careful process, invisible to you, but it will bring glory to Him and it will bring lasting joy to you. But right now, He is taking time to get you ready for the answer, recreating you into someone who has mountain-moving faith. Because if you do not have to wait you do not have to develop faith. And all of us, no matter how powerful we think we are, need is faith to experience life events that cause it to develop.
James 1:2-4, “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So, do not try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work, so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” (MSG)
Your faith muscles need exercise so they can be strengthened to develop and the weights that work best for this is tests and challenges that come at you from all sides! Strengthening your faith in the waiting time brings you peace like you have never known. It gives you the reassurance that God is at work, and you will be rewarded, in the fullness of time! So, do not rush, do not panic, and do not try to get out of any situation that God is using for your ultimate good!
If You Let It Happen God’s Way You Will Not Be Deficient in Any Way! So, WAIT! It Will Be Good!
Romans 8:26-28, “Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we do not know how or what to pray, it does not matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is working into something good.” (MSG)
Even God Knows We Get Tired In The Waiting, and He is even prepared a plan for that. The Holy Spirit comes alongside to help us along, interceding along the journey.
Listen, I know you have been waiting so long you have lost count on how many days, weeks, and years you have been waiting. But I still say wait! Why? Because God is working on something good just for you, and all you must do is trust Him and wait for it!
J.P. Olson
www.thewordwithjpolson.org
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