Thoughts on God's Timing

Not long ago I was invited to a girl’s night out that a friend of mine was hosting at her home.  She lived about 30 minutes from me.  As I pulled away from my home, I noticed that we had gotten a bit of snow that afternoon, but the roads seemed fine so I thought nothing of it.

Shortly after leaving my house, I turned on the Highway to find that what had seemed minor within city limits, was actually quite major when out of town along on the Highway.  

I began to count the number of vehicles that I saw in the ditch.  There were 9 of them.  Nine vehicles in the ditch before I had even driven 20 miles outside of town.  It was horrible and left me feeling like I had made a poor decision to go in the first place.  Eventually, wisdom set in and I called my friend, telling her that I would need to turn around and post-pone our evening altogether. 

As I drove back home that night, the Holy Spirit began to teach me more about the timing of God.  

Timing is everything.  

This was a road that I had driven on literally dozens of times before.  This was a path well-known to me.  There were no surprises regarding curves in the road or stop lights found along the way, and yet, on this occasion the road at this particular time took on an entirely different personality altogether. 

What was once familiar now seemed scary and unsettling.  

I came upon 3 different accidents.  Traffic was driving painfully slow, and still I managed to slide around several different times.  I was thankful to arrive home safely. 

The next morning I nervously set out on the very same path, as it was Sunday and that was the very road I needed to take to get to church.  I couldn’t hardly believe the difference!  

Fifteen hours had made the difference between night and day. 

The emergency vehicles were now no longer around, as traffic flowed freely.  There were, however, some remaining vehicles littered on both sides of the highway, serving as a chilling reminder of the storm that had been present the previous evening.   

And so it goes with God’s timing. 

The journey may be the same, but its timing that makes the difference between success and disaster.  Without the snow and ice I was able to arrive to my destination quickly, without my nerves feeling frazzled and heightened.  I did not worry that my vehicle would slide into another car or off the road completely, because the conditions were completely different.

Often in our lives God may, in His mercy, decide to wait “fifteen hours” longer than we would like.  Often we get restless and upset.  We wonder: what is He doing?  Has He forgotten us?  Does He still love us?  The list of my responses to God can go on and on.  Thankfully, though, He sees my entire path.  He knows my "road conditions".  

He sees the ice in the country that is hidden from my view in the city.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 starts by saying, “He has made everything beautiful in its time”.  This is the beauty of knowing God as our Father.  We give Him full reign in our lives.  We ask Him to give or to hold back; to send us out or to keep us from going; to close or to open doors.  

He is our Father.  When we give our lives to Him, we give Him the freedom to intervene.  We give Him the freedom to say no.  He is the Author of the Great Crescendo.  He knows how it should look and what will enable success in this journey of our lives. 

I say, have free reign in me, Father!  I delight in Your hand!  I delight in You!  Make me according to Your dreams, Your plans, Your design!  

That is the beauty of having Him hold the reigns of our lives.  He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.