In Due Time

The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that to everything there is a time or a season. God’s timing is always perfect but many times we pray and expect God to answer our prayers straight away. However, God works in His timing and not in ours, which can be frustrating until the fuller picture that God had in mind for us emerges, and we learn that His ways are always best. God made time. So, it exists to serve His purposes.

The Bible records many events which could never have happened without God’s intervention. The sign given by the prophet Isaiah was that the shadow of the sun would go back ten degrees and God’s promise that the life of King Hezekiah would be extended by fifteen years (Isaiah 38:8)

It was in God’s perfect timing that Sarah gave birth to Isaac when both she and Abraham were very much in their old age. When they tried to make it happen, they ended up making a mess of things, the consequences of which the world is still witnessing to this day.

After hundreds of years in slavery in Egypt, when the time came for the children of Israel to be freed from slavery, the Bible declares, “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream, then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing” (Psalm 126:1-2).

At eighty-five years of age, when most people would consider that they are running out of time, Caleb cried, “Give me this mountain” and he entered into the inheritance promised to him by Moses (Joshua 14:10-12).

We are also reminded in Scripture that Jesus came in the fullness of time and that `in due time Christ died for the ungodly` (Romans 5:6). In all these things God is reminding us that our times are in His hands. He knows exactly where we are and what we need. And we read in the Bible, `I will bless the Lord at all times` (Psalm 34:1).

To all who belong to the Lord, God even orchestrates our less desirable moments so that everything works for our good and within God’s precise timing. So, don’t worry about what hasn’t happened yet. God raises up and sets down as He pleases among the sons of men, and as Daniel himself declared, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever; for wisdom and might are his, and he changes the times and the seasons, he removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:20-21).

In our quest to understand, we are in danger of forfeiting the honour of walking with God. He requires us to trust Him, not to always have to know everything. So, the Bible encourages us to redeem the time because the days are evil and to not be weary in well doing, for in due time we will reap if we do not faint (Galatians 6:9). Your time is in His hands, He has not forgotten you.