The Timing Will Always Be Right

 

“I keep praying and praying but nothing seems to be happening.” I’ve heard that comment and similar thoughts several times over the past few weeks. People have sought me out, as a pastor, to talk about what is, or is not, going on in their lives. The problems are serious. Their prayers are sincere. But the answers…where are they? Their seeking of answers seems to be more a matter of when, rather than how.

My answers are somewhat indirect. Yes, God hears your prayers. Yes, God cares about what is going on in your life. No, God isn’t too busy with other things. Yes, God has more than enough power to do whatever is needed in your situation. No, God never abandons his children. No, God never fails to keep any of his promises. 

I often find myself bringing up the matter of the point-of-view. There is a tremendous difference between our human point-of-view on any situation and the view that God has of the matter. Our is close-up and limited. God has the wide-angle, seeing all the pieces, the connections with other pieces that we can’t even imagine, and the grand scale of time. And God sees his purposes in the situation, which is often beyond the ability of ours to imagine, and always directed towards his own glory.

And so my bible reading plan brought me to Psalm 69, where verse 13 says:

“But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”

David, the psalm’s author, is in a world of trouble as he cries out to God for rescue. Follow the link and read the psalm for yourself. It’s a bad time in his life and he desperately calls on God to save him. But what stood out to me, in consideration of my recent conversations, was David’s recognition that God’s answer would come in God’s timing.

In the midst of his peril David trusts God to answer his prayer when God thinks it is best, and not according to the desires of David at any particular moment. David’s perspective here is personally helpful to me. First of all, as a pastor talking and praying with people here in Dulce, it is a biblical reminder that we have to wait on God to determine when he will act. But in a more personal sense it is a reminder that applies to some of my own prayers and the answers I would desire for them. I lift them to the Lord day after day, and sometimes year after year, trusting him to answer when the timing is right, from his point of view. He knows innumerable things about the situation that I may never know, but I do know that the action he takes in each and every situation, will always be right.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.