The Bible tells us that trusting in the timing of God’s plan matters. Yet God’s perfect timing is a difficult concept to understand in our daily lives. This post discovers what it practically looks like to trust in God’s timing.
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The issue of timing
Timing is a concept of God that human beings face in their everyday life. You might be ready for the next thing in your life, but it is the wrong time. No matter what plans your anxious mind thinks up, the waiting period seems to last forever.
Many things depend on the ‘right moment’ or the ‘perfect time’ before they can happen. You might have longed for something and done everything in your power to make it work out… But it’s just not happening. Perhaps you’re waiting to hear back about a job, to meet your life partner, or to have a child.
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Waiting is a wave I’ve had to learn to surf over the past few years. It was anything but easy! Waiting for that job, a home, a child, financial breakthrough, answers, justice, forgiveness… and the list goes on. Someone once told me “There is weight that follows the wait”. Waiting well can produce something heavy (as in, worthwhile or deep) in us if we let it.
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“To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!” (Proverbs 15:23)
And I’ve suffered because:
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones”. (Proverbs 17:22).
There are things I still wait for today. But I trust that the same God who has been faithful to put breath into my lungs and yours this morning, will continue to be faithful in allowing things to work out at the right time.
“When the time is right, I, the Lord, will make it happen” – Isaiah 60:22
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What is timing in the Bible?
Let’s do a Bible study to discover what the Word of the Lord says about God’s divine timing. We will go through a few steps with regard to learning to trust God’s timing. Each step has a short devotional paragraph explaining a valuable truth. After the paragraph, there’s a question for reflection. Below the question, you’ll find Bible verses supporting the truth shared in that step.
The most important thing to cling to in hard times is that the divine timing of God is just that – divine. The matter of timing is truly in God’s hands. God’s perspective is higher than our own and the ultimate authority lies with Him. Timing in the Bible is not determined by human plans but by a proper time that is determined by God. When we remember that God is fully in control of time, we realize that our human heart was never meant to carry this burden.
Is Jesus truly the Lord of your life – your finances, your marriage, your family, your heart, and your desires?
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children” – Galatians 4:4
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” – Romans 5:6
“The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,” – Isaiah 14:24
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:” – Ecclesiastes 3:1
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” – Romans 8:18-21
If God’s ways are higher than our own, that does not only mean that His ways are good… It also means that our ways are bad. We need to recognize that, sometimes, the things we long for and wait for are not the right things. Allow God to search your heart and hold your desires with open palms. Repent of the places where doubt has crept in and you might have tried to figure it out in your own way.
Are the things you are praying for worldly things or are they things that echo the heart of God?
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” – Jeremiah 17:9-10
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – Romans 12:2
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” – Proverbs 14:12
“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” – 1 John 2:16-17
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” – 1 Corinthians 2:14
“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” – Acts 3:19-21
If God’s ways are higher than ours, then God’s time is better than ours as well. The first step was to put God back on the throne and make Him Lord of your life again. The second was to admit that our own fleshly desires are not as good as His plans for us. Take heart and know that God’s promises do not expire. He has a perfect plan for your life and the mighty hand of God will make it happen at the perfect moment.
Why do you find it hard to trust God to make things work out?
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” – Romans 11:33
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” – Numbers 23:19
“Do not say, ‘I will repay evil’; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you” – Proverbs 20:22
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” – Matthew 6:33
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” – Genesis 18:14
Learning how to wait well and trust God’s timing
If there’s an ocean wave coming your way, you can be knocked over by it and plunged under the water; or you can joyfully surf it. Waiting is like the wave and trusting God’s timing is like surfing it. Waiting well will ensure that you do not miss out on the beautiful testimony that God might be producing in you right now. Remember, He wastes nothing but redeems everything for His glory.
What is your heart posture in this season of waiting?
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” – Proverbs 3:5-6
“Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” – Psalm 27:14
“But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” – Romans 8:28
“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” – Ecclesiastes 7:8
“Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long” – Psalm 25:5
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning” – Psalm 130:5-6
“But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” – Matthew 24:13
What to do while you wait
“Are we there yet?”, children infamously whine from the backseat of every family car. Sometimes we feel like the children in a car that God is driving. We are tired of waiting, exhausted from the drive, impatient, and perhaps a little rude. (Because) We are usually not able to track how far we’ve already come, unable to see the road ahead, and unaware of other traffic on the street. Even though trusting in God’s timing can be hard, there are many verses in the Bible that encourage us with what to do while we wait.
How can you make the waiting season more bearable?
“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.” – Psalm 37:7-9
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart”. – Psalm 37:4
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up”. – Galatians 6:9
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” – Philippians 4:6
“But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” – Luke 21:36
“My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.” – Proverbs 4:20-22
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” – Romans 12:12
Promises to hold onto when waiting on God’s timing
Stress and worry can threaten to swallow us whole as we are waiting for things to change. It is in those times that the voices of these anxieties can drown out the voice of the Holy Spirit – if we let it. Below are some better things to listen to. Use these truths from Scripture to combat the lies of the enemy as you wait for God’s perfect timing to break through like light in the darkness.
What voice are you listening to while you are waiting?
“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” – Matthew 21:22
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” – 1 John 5:14-15
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” – James 1:5
““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” – Matthew 7:7
“I trust the LORD God to save me, and I will wait for him to answer my prayer” – Micah 7:7
“For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” – Habakkuk 2:3
“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” – Isaiah 40:31
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Resources:
– Some Bible verses were brainstormed utilizing the keyword search tool on openbible
Eljoh Hartzer is combining theology and art to nurture faith journeys across generations. She is a Masters-level Practical Theologian with the University of Stellenbosch. She is also a writer and editor in the niche of Christianity and children's content and she illustrates children's books. Eljoh resides in the Swartland area in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
You can follow Eljoh on LinkedIn or Instagram.
