“It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.”
Donald Miller
Over forty years ago, my sister wrote on the back of her high school senior photo, “Your time will come.” She was encouraging me, the one who didn’t date much in high school, to hang in there, for one day I would meet my true love. Her words were prophetic, as two years later she introduced me to my beloved at a fraternity party at the University of Arizona.
Ten days after meeting John, when I was a few months shy of turning eighteen, he said he loved me. I tried to convince him he was just infatuated. Without hesitation he said, “Time will tell.” I can say, forty years later, that was the first of many times he has been right!
Back in the year 2000, God gave me a clarion call that I was to “mentor the masses.” I was just beginning to speak at our church and was in the middle of my 26-year writing journey. Mentoring the masses seemed to be a stretch, but like it says of Abraham in Romans 4:20-21, my desire was to become
fully convinced. “Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.”
Sometimes I have great difficulty believing God’s call. Doubt gets in the way, causing a chasm to be between what I heard to be true and my heart being fully assured. In times like that I need to remind myself: it
will happen, regardless of my incapability. My assurance comes from what God is able to do and He has no bounds. God’s capability is limitless.
One of the many things I still have difficulty discerning is the timing of His prophetic words. When I hear Him speak, I automatically think it’s a NOW word, something He will bring to fruition now, not later. Today, not tomorrow. ASAP: as soon as possible. How often I am wrong in assuming God’s timing.
For the past thirty years, spending time with God and learning from Him was His strategy to prepare me for what I’m doing now-writing the mentor’s musings. I had no idea what He was up to, but just like Ecclesiastes 3:11a says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
I don’t wait well. Patience is something God is continually trying to teach me. What is the Lord preparing you today, to do tomorrow? I want to encourage you to not be in a rush. The Lord once showed me the analogy of a dog on a leash. He doesn’t want us to move ahead of Him, nor lag behind, causing Him to pull us along. Both of those result in tension on the leash called relationship. Instead, He wants us to trot right along next to Him. That’s the place of greatest intimacy.
We often stumble over God’s will for our lives when we’re going about our normal responsibilities, when we’re obeying the next thing He’s given us to do. It’s when you’re not looking for something that you’ll trip right over it. You can rest assured, God is always on time. He’s never late, nor is He ever early. Remember, when it comes to His promises, your time will come.
“He makes all things beautiful in His time.”
Maranatha Music
Relevant Reflections:
1. What has God called you to do?
2. How is the Lord preparing you now in order to fulfill that call?
3. Ask God to make you fully persuaded, that He has the power to do what He has promised.