Jesus, Your Timing Is Perfect

Have you been impatiently tapping your foot, wishing that certain things you hoped for would finally happen? Grab your Bible, your notebook, a cup of coffee, and sit down with the Lord for a few moments. Here’s why. In our frustrating “hurry up Lord” moments, we’ve got to get our perspective adjusted to His and our timing back on course to match His timetable. Know this from Isaiah 55:9. God’s ways are higher than our ways. We learn here that our ideas of what could and should happen are sometimes different than God’s plans for us. And that includes timing of events. Jesus says, “Follow Me.” And that is exactly what He is asking of us: Follow Him. Not lead Him, but follow Him! And I’ve discovered that Jesus is never in a hurry. And He is never early or late, but perfect in His timing. If what you hoped for hasn’t happened – at least not yet – then there is a reason for the Lord’s ways. He sees the end from the beginning and He knows you better than you know yourself. John Henry Jowett says that sometimes there are long waits in preparation for a great mission. He goes on to say: “When God delays, He is not inactive. He is getting ready His instruments, He is ripening our powers; and at the appointed moment we shall arise equal to our task. Even Jesus of Nazareth was thirty years in privacy, growing in wisdom before He began His work.”

Mrs. Charles Cowman speaks to this very idea of timing in Streams In The Desert today: “The hardest ingredient in suffering is often time. A short, sharp pang is easily borne, but when a sorrow drags its weary way through long, monotonous years, and day after day returns with the same dull routine of hopeless agony, the heart loses its strength, and without the grace of God, is sure to sink into the very sullenness of despair…We may not see now the outcome of the beautiful plan which God is hiding in the shadow of His hand; it yet may be long concealed; but faith may be sure that He is sitting on the throne, calmly waiting the hour when, with adoring rapture, we shall say, All things have worked together for good. Like Joseph, let us be more careful to learn all the lessons in the school of sorrow than we are anxious for the hour of deliverance. There is a need-be for every lesson, and when we are ready, our deliverance will surely come, and we shall find that we could not have stood in our place of higher service without the very things that were taught us in the ordeal. God is educating us for the future, for higher service and nobler blessings; and if we have the qualities that fit us for the throne, nothing can keep us from it when God’s time has come. Don’t steal tomorrow out of God’s hands. Give God time to speak to you and reveal His will. He is never too late; learn to wait.”

I am learning to fix my eyes on Jesus and focus on Him as He leads me in what I call the dance. He is making my heart into a heart that dances. He is showing me how to follow Him. Sometimes the dance is slow and sometimes fast. He is teaching me to focus not on the tempo or on the dance itself, but on Him. With my eyes fixed on Him, my heart fills up with His joy and His peace. His beauty and His very Person are better than any earthly endeavor. Focused on Jesus, the time no longer matters for in touching Him and knowing Him, our thoughts are planted in eternity, and our life is filled with eternal things (see 2 Corinthians 4:18). And so, today, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25), as He leads us and guides us into the Lord’s plans and purposes. And then, while you dance, look into the face of your Lord, and experience the unparalleled wonder of His smile today.

My Response: Lord Jesus, thank You that You are not in a hurry and know where You are leading me today. Help me keep in step with the Spirit, and follow You as You lead me in our dance together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.