Do You Struggle with God’s Timing? — Vaneetha Risner
God’s timing is always perfect. Never late. Never early. Always on time.
Has anyone said that to you when you were waiting for something? If so, I’m sorry. I hope it wasn’t me because I bristle when someone offers me a platitude in response to a struggle I’m sharing. Rather than allowing someone to express the real grief they’re feeling, platitudes abruptly end the conversation.
The Struggle with Waiting and Trusting
I say this as a preface because this article is about God’s timing. It rarely feels perfect or even good and I’m often frustrated with how slowly things change. I wish that God would rescue me as soon as I ask him, reveal his plans when I’m struggling, or give me a sign when I feel desperate. But often, no rescue, no revelation, no sign comes. I’m left wondering when, or if, my situation will change.
If it were up to me, I would have orchestrated my life differently. There would have been fewer unknowns, less waiting, more certainty.
And yet in retrospect, I can see that God has been working in every detail of my life. He controls both the timing and the wait. Even my seeming mistakes and missteps. There is a purpose to my pain, one that in heaven I will appreciate and rejoice in.
Biblical Examples of God’s Timing
Looking at Scripture I see that God had a purpose in his timing, though it must have felt bewildering to those living through it. I see God’s precision in the book of Esther, where rescue came just in time and seemingly incidental events were critical to the final deliverance. Joseph spent over a decade as a slave or prisoner, perhaps wondering why God had brought calamity after calamity despite Joseph’s faithfulness, until he was unexpectedly elevated to second in all of Egypt.
The timing might have felt horribly amiss to both Elizabeth and Mary, who both found favor with God, and whose sons were heralded with an angelic proclamation. Elizabeth was a righteous older woman who endured years of shame for not bearing a child. She might have wondered why God had waited to give her a son in her old age, long after her friends had all raised their children. And yet the timing of her son’s birth was critical, for he was the long-awaited messenger of the Messiah.
I wonder if Mary questioned God’s timing when she learned she’d be pregnant before she was married. Did she wonder why God didn’t wait until after she was married to Joseph? Then there would have been no scandal, no question about her reputation or purity. But every detail of Christ’s birth was purposeful, planned before the foundation of the world.
Did these saints wonder if God’s plan and purposes could have been fulfilled without loneliness, tears or pain? Did they question God’s timing?
My Experience of God’s Timing
God’s timing has long been a mystery to me. Just before my infant son Paul died, he saw a substitute doctor because his regular cardiologist was away. This new physician impulsively took Paul off his medicine, saying he looked better than expected. We were thrilled to hear of Paul’s progress, but all the more heartbroken when he died two days later. For a long time, I played and replayed the “what if’s” and “if only’s,” asking God why he allowed us to see a substitute doctor who didn’t fully understand Paul’s condition. It seemed random and unfair. But finally, I settled into the reality that I may never understand God’s timing. All I could do was trust that because God had permitted what happened, there was a purpose to it.
Yet on a few occasions, God has shown me a purpose and blessing in his delay. In my early twenties, I had a complicated surgery in Europe that was inexplicably postponed at the last minute, after I had been admitted to the hospital and prepped for surgery. I waited five days in my hospital room, fuming and frustrated, with no explanation for the hold up. I later learned that my surgeon decided to wait for an out-of-town colleague whom he wanted to assist with the operation. This colleague made a suggestion before the operation that prevented a catastrophe. Post surgery, my doctor said it was an absolute miracle that his colleague had joined him. What felt like an infuriating delay was God’s love and mercy.
These accounts, from Scripture and my personal experience, remind me that God is over every detail, and my life is unfolding in ways that only God knows and understands. He may be rescuing me from evils and dangers that I can’t fathom. He knows the pain in my current situation. And because he is completely for me and has blessing in everything he gives me, I can be sure that what is happening right now, in this very moment, is God’s very best for me. The timing. The delays. The earnest prayers. The silence. None of it is random.
Embracing the Mystery of God’s Plan
God has not overlooked you. You don’t need to look back and wonder if God’s plans for you have been derailed. God’s best plan for you is still in place. It cannot be wrecked by accidents or sin, because Satan cannot take away anything good that God has for us. Satan is certainly against us, and prowls around to devour us, but as we see at the cross, Satan’s evil plan to destroy everything good was part of God’s greater plan to give us his absolute best.
The longer I live, the more I understand that God is working everything in my life, including the timing, for my good. Many years ago, I read this quote by Evelyn Christenson, and I wanted to believe it, to understand and experience it, but it seemed foreign. And impossible. But now, decades later, I see the truth in her words:
“This is the place you reach when after years and years of trials and difficulties, you see that all has been working out for your good, and that God’s will is perfect. You see that He has made no mistakes. He knew all of the “what if’s” in your life. When you finally recognize this, even during the trials, it’s possible to have joy, deep down joy.”
Nothing in our lives is random or haphazard. If we are in Christ, God is working out every detail. Nothing escapes his notice, for not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father’s will. God’s timing is perfect, and he has made no mistakes, though we often can’t see it in the middle of our story.
Today you may be in a dark and difficult part of your story, straining to see any light, wondering how much more you can take. But don’t give up. God is with you in your darkness. And when the final chapter of your story is written, you will look back on all God has done and see how every part has worked together for your best and for God’s glory.
