“God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time…”
Ecclesiastes 3:11a
Among the many challenges of gardening, accepting the reality of time has to be one of the most difficult. The potential to learn is at the finger tips of most of us. “YouTube University” has taught me more in the last decade than any book I’ve read on gardening.
However, one thing remains the same…time has to play out in order to see any fruit from my labor. It doesn’t matter how much research I put in…how much care I took in planting at the right depth, ensuring proper light, water, and nutrients. Once planted…I still have to wait.
Can you relate to this? That is to say, can you relate to the reality of time’s hold on your future?
Now, for many of us, what we want is to snap our fingers and see things change.
- Maybe it’s a challenging job…
- Maybe it’s a challenging relationship…
- Maybe it’s an investment…or a house contract…
- Maybe it’s sickness or waiting for a diagnoses…
- Maybe it’s an acceptance letter…
- Maybe it’s a text…a tweet…a facebook post…
In the end, we all struggle–at some level–with accepting time’s pace…schedule.
What is the Christian to do?
- Acknowledge
- Embrace
- Trust
Acknowledge
There is a presumptive spirit inside of each of us. In other words, we usually carry with us some notion toward our clairvoyance or ability to adequately speculate. The problem with this attitude is that we generally will suffer from discontentment. We’re just not able to see into the future.
Thus, we have to acknowledge that time is part of life, and I cannot predict the future.
Embrace
As hard as things are, they will pass. Ever come through a difficult season that you thought you could never come through? You were there in the moment, and you thought to yourself, “How will I ever make it through this _________?” You made it, you’re here, and yet you still face the issue of time.
Thus, we have to accept and embrace the pain, the struggle, and the wait.
Trust
Faith is required here. This part of life is hard for all of us. We usually want trust to be instant, but it’s not. It takes time. And that’s just it. God is using time to build trust in our lives.
Thus, we have to trust that time is being used to build trust.
The Israelites of old were given promises that if they obeyed God they would be blessed, and if they disobeyed God they would be cursed. Ultimately, the blessing would be physical prosperity in the land of Canaan, and cursing would be exile form the same land. Time had to prove their trust. They failed.
However, God didn’t leave them in their failure, but promised that in time a Messiah would come. They would have to wait and look.
He came–Jesus Christ came–into His world…
“But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son…”
Galatians 4:4a
Time has always been used by God to produce trust in His people.
Rest in Him…He’s using time to build trust in you and me!
— October 9, 2020