Tag Archives: waiting on God’s timing

God’s Timetable

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mountain laurel flowerIn today’s post, I look at several people who waited on God’s timetable, God’s plan, and God’s will before they were used to accomplish his purpose.

Perhaps you’re in a place in your life where you need to push pause and consider the lives of the Israelites, David, Jesus, and Paul right along with me, as we wait on God’s timetable, plan, and will.

Instead of taking the Israelites the short way from Egypt to the promised land through Philistine territory, God took them along the southern route. Even if they hadn’t rebelled and added years to their journey, this route was longer.

Why did God do that?

I believe it was because he knew the Israelites weren’t prepared to face the Philistine army. They weren’t strong enough. They knew nothing of war. In time they would, but they didn’t then.

The Israelites had to wait on God’s timetable, God’s plan, and God’s will.

David waited over a decade between the day Samuel anointed him as God’s chosen king, to the day David claimed the throne.

Why the long wait?

I believe it was because God knew David wasn’t ready for the job. Sure. David had victories over Goliath and the bear and lion. Major victories in anyone’s book. But there was more he needed to learn to be God’s effective tool in conquering the land, and establishing God’s people as his own.

I’m thinking if David hadn’t spent so much time out there with his sheep, the world would not have the blessings of his psalms for one thing.

David had to wait on God’s timetable. God’s plan. God’s will.

Jesus lacked nothing, yet he waited 33 years from birth to resurrection before God’s plan of salvation became reality.

Why?

I believe it was because humanity needed those years to understand the fulfillment of the prophesies about the Messiah. We needed those years to understand the reason Christ came to this earth, lived a perfect life, offered his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, defeated hell, sin, Satan, and death, rose from the grave, and ascended into heaven where he sits at his Father’s right hand waiting for the day God says, “Go get your Bride”.

Jesus had to wait on God’s timetable. God’s plan. God’s will.

After Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he did not receive his sight immediately, nor did he set out on a missionary journey as soon as he regained his vision.

Even after Paul began his ministry to the Gentiles, there were times the Holy Spirit blocked his way, and kept him from doing what Paul felt he needed to accomplish.

Why did he do that?

I believe, like most of us, Paul needed to be humbled in order to be receptive to what God’s plan was for his life.

Paul had to wait on God’s timetable. God’s plan. God’s will.

How are you doing waiting on God’s timetable in your life? Do you find it easy or difficult?

Leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the subject. If you think others would appreciate reading this, please share it through the social media buttons.

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Micah 7:7 (NIV)

You can find my May Inspire a Fire post here. Please stop by and read it.

I wish you well.

Sandy

Delayed Blessing

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office building

A devotion in Streams in the Desert talks about delayed blessing. The story is told of a man led into the Lord’s treasure-house, where he discovered the Delayed Blessing Office. This is where God stored the answers to certain prayers until it was wise to send them.

The devotion went on to say, “For some who pray expecting an answer, it takes a long time to learn that delays of answers are not denials. These blessings held in the Delayed Blessing Office are deep secrets of love and wisdom we never imagined.”

Do you believe that? Can you accept that delays of answers are not denials?

Have you ever wanted God to bless you in some way without realizing you weren’t ready for that blessing? I have.

It’s like removing a cake from the oven before it is fully cooked. The cake isn’t ready. It’s not done. It’s raw in the middle. Out of our impatience, we didn’t give the cake the required time in the oven to bake. We end up with something far short of what we could have had if we were patient.

God uses time to refine us, to prepare us, to make us ready for those blessings he holds in the Delayed Blessing Office until it’s time to send them our way. I don’t like waiting. I really do not. Yet, when I take the time to actually consider God’s delays this way, I see, despite how I may want things to move at a faster pace, the wait is for a good reason.

God’s delayed blessings are proof of his love, not the opposite. God knows when we’re ready to receive his blessings. He knows how long to keep them in the Delayed Blessing Office before he dispenses them.

After all, none of us want to end up like a cake taken from the oven too soon, do we?

O you of little faith,

God has not failed you yet!

When all looks dark and gloomy,

You do so soon forget–

Forget that He has led you,

And gently cleared your way;

On clouds has poured His sunshine,

And turned your night to day.

And if He’s helped you to this point,

He will not fail you now;

How it must wound His loving heart

To see your anxious brow!

Oh! doubt not any longer,

To Him commit your way,

Whom in the past you trusted,

And is just the same today.

selected–Streams in the Desert

Waiting at the door of the Delayed Blessing Office? Me too. Remember. God will not open that door one second too soon, nor one second too late. And that’s a good thing, right?

Leave your comments below to share your thoughts on the subject. If you think others would appreciate reading this, please share it through the social media buttons.

But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day! Habakkuk 2:3 (TLB)

You can find my July Inspire a Fire post here. Please stop by and read it.

I wish you well.

Sandy

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