God's Timing, God's Plan

Today I read Genesis 47-48, Psalm 10, Luke 19, and Chapter 1 of Refuel. It is amazing how God’s timing and plan never seem to fit what we think it should be or how it is going to happen. In the life of Joseph he never would have thought that it was God’s plan for him to be sold into slavery, spend some time as a servant, get wrongfully accused of a crime, spend time in a dungeon, become the greatest person in Egypt next to the Pharaoh, save his family from the famine, and then have the wrong kid (the younger) get the best blessing from his father Jacob. What an incredible life that he never could have scripted and wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t waited on the Lord and relied on Him and His plan. Even when he tried to orchestrate the older son to get the better blessing, Jacob crosses his hands and gives it to the younger. God doing the unexpected at the unexpected time seemed to be a theme.

Then take Jesus who does the unthinkable by choosing to dine in the house of Zaccheus a known thief of a tax collector and hated by all the people because of his sins of cheating and getting rich off the backs of his fellow Jews and selling out to the Romans. Then Jesus has to teach a parable to help people to see that what they thought about the Kingdom of God was all wrong and they would actually face destruction of Israel before things would ever get better. Again the unexpected and something that did not fit the people’s timing.

Yet in all these things from simple misunderstanding to outright disaster, God brings great results in all cases. Because of Joseph’s situation, God saves his people that he promised to bless and multiply from the death they would have faced in the famine. God uses Ephraim’s line to be the line from which the Messiah comes. Zaccheus ends up changing his life and giving money back with great interest to those he had wronged. Jesus dies on a cross but through is death salvation comes to all people.

I think about my own life and God’s timing. There have been so many times when I have wanted to speed up God. He takes too long in my mind sometimes. I think about this whole marriage thing and wondering when it would be “discovered” by Rick and the rest of the leadership. Event with huge numbers of people in attendance and stories of marriages that had been helped, it seemed like it was unnoticed or seen as my “hobby.” Yet in God’s infinite wisdom, certain things needed to take place first before it was ready to be on the radar. Now to hear Rick say in a meeting of all of the pastors that I am pastor to couples and I would have a space on his new Purpose Driven website to reach out to couples around the world is staggering and beyond what I thought possible. Funny how now I am reeling a bit because that was not what I expected. I was hoping just for some recognition and maybe some pulpit push every once in a while. But now to have the potential of global influence in this area is staggering and quite frankly a little scary for me. I feel like I may not be ready now (I always do that though) at the same time I have a strange sense of God’s leading in all of this. One thing I know for sure is that I need to wait and go along for the ride. God’s timing and plan is always better than my own and my rest, trust and obedience are what I can offer as I go on this ride.

Lord, thank you for watching out for me and giving me the peace that comes from knowing you are in control. When I think of all the things you have done in my life to bring me to this place right now, no matter where it goes, I am humbled and in awe of how you work. Help me to stay dependent on you because I know I can do nothing apart from you. Help me to abide. Amen.
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