Monday, October 12, 2015

Trusting God's Timing

I am always fascinated by movies that deal with time travel where the protagonist travels back in time to change a series of events to safeguard the future. Watching these movies gives me a sense of control knowing that if things did go wrong in my life, how nice it would be to enter a time machine and simply undo them.


One of the biggest struggles in my Christian walk has been on the issue of God’s timing. I noticed that the timelines I had calibrated in my mind about the timing of certain events and God’s timelines of those very events never seem to match. For starters, I had hoped to be married by the age of 25 but here I am still single in my mid-thirties. As days pass into years, I am left wondering if this season will ever change.

God is sovereign and His promises in His word are true. God is the God of all comfort and Father of all mercies and yet, here I am struggling when it comes to the question of His timing.

I know that God has graciously placed me in this extended season of singleness and there is a purpose which He is fulfilling at the moment. I have experienced the joy of walking close with Christ, spending uninterrupted time in His word and in prayer and grow in my Christian faith. I have been able to meet up with friends for a cup of coffee or babysit my friends’ kids on a day’s notice. It was in a minuscule way of learning to die to self. At work, God provided many opportunities to witness for Christ. These are things that I will never trade for anything else.

I am reminded of Abraham and Sarah who waited and waited for the promise to be fulfilled. I love how it says in Romans 4:18 “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

One of my favorite promises in Scripture that helps me stay grounded is from Jeremiah 29:11 “  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

God wants me to trust Him completely and that includes my season of singleness. Somehow, my gaze is always fixed on the uncertainty of my situation than in the unchanging nature of God. I need to see God as my loving Heavenly Father who in His infinite wisdom has allowed my singleness to last for a long season. It is futile on my part to cling to my understanding of when this season should change.

True joy is found in the Person of Christ, not in my changed status.

It is so rightly said in the book of Ecclesiastes: “For everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”

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