Experiencing God's Grace on His Time

All of us can remember how impatient we were as children waiting for Christmas day to come so that we could see the gifts that were left for us under the Christmas tree. After I found out that my parents, not Santa, were responsible for these gifts, I would search the house ahead of Christmas hoping to get an early peak at my presents. My curiosity just wouldn't let me wait until the appropriate time to receive my gifts.

As adults our patience has not improved much. We look for the quick fix or the easy solution. We even look for our material gifts, like those under our childhood Christmas tree, before their time. Credit cards have helped us in this. Seeking to know God our Father takes time and discipline.

Our days are too full to devote much time toward getting to know Him better. If God is our help we say, "I need you right now Lord." We are so impatient that we decide to use our own personal strengths or gifts so that we can be on our way. We can't wait for God.

In James 5:7-10 we learn, "Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near."

God's time is not a tick-tock of the clock. God's time is measured by whatever is necessary with no minimums or maximums. Einstein's theory of relativity may describe God’s time more than we think. With God everything is relative. He is not on a time schedule. His time allows for the need to be fulfilled in its appropriate time. For us this might be a lifetime.                                              

Understanding God's time is trusting. On God's time our watches simply say, "TRUST ME." Trust-me time is always right. Natural world time is speculative.

Much of our worry in this life has to do with our view of time. When we worry we are not trusting; we do not have faith in God. We must set our watches on Trust-me time. We won't even have to move them forward in the spring and back in the fall.

Many times I have tried to turn things over to God so that I am not haunted with the worries and concerns of life. About the time I think I have fully turned things over to Him, I wake up in the morning with a pile of concerns I have been mulling over all night. I don’t seem to be able to understand the difference between what I can do and what God needs to handle for me.

I’ve found that the crazy part of all my worry is that my concerns are for things I don’t have the ability to change, make happen or make go away. These are things that are completely out of my control. As soon as I realize my worry is about things I have no power over, I feel a peace and a surrendering to God.

We do have a personal responsibility for many things in life. God needs our help in order to help us. Just as we need to listen to God to understand the things we have no control over, we have to listen to God to understand the things He wants us to do. It’s a bit of a tightrope walk for us, but if we don’t continually seek and listen for His guidance for our part and His part, we are lost.

The opening words in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 (NRSV), instruct us and guide us, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." Trust God and be patient.