Wednesday's Words To Live By For March 7th – March 13th 2012 "God Is An On Time God!(Just Not Our Time)" Part I

[Rev. Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks, PsyD]

I have heard many people make the statement, “God may not come when you want Him, but He is right on time,” this is a true statement; however, it can be confusing to you if you have not received the revelation about its meaning.

As I was making my bed, God begin to deal with me about the Scripture where Lazarus had died (John 11:1-45). Lazarus sisters, Mary and Martha, called for Jesus days before he died to let Jesus know Lazarus was sick. But Jesus deliberately delayed going to Lazarus until after he died. Jesus knew if He did not go right away, Lazarus would die; God knows everything before it is going to happen. Jesus delayed because He knew He would perform a miracle and God would get the glory (vs. 4-6). Martha was upset with Jesus when He came because Lazarus had died; he had been in the grave for four days. Why did God bring this Scripture to my mind? It was because I had just finished praying, asking Him to do some things for me which had deadlines. Also, God wanted me to clearly see, His timing is not my timing. In other words, what’s an emergency to me is not an emergency to God.

Although Jesus was late, on purpose, coming to Lazarus, in the end, it all worked out for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus’ good; foremost, God got the glory for the miracle. God will not share His glory with no one! We are not smart enough, rich enough, strong enough, etc. to bring ourselves out of nothing! Everything we have, God gave it to us; we can do nothing without Him. Sometimes when man does not help us and they can, it is because they either have not allowed God to touch their heart to help or God don’t want that man bragging about “he” brought you out. Even when things don’t work out like we think they should sometimes, most of the time, when we have our own “ram in the bush,” God allows it to fall through so to save us from getting the big head and saying, “I” did this or “I” did that.

These are the three reasons God gave me why He wait to answer our “urgent” prayer request: The first reason why God wait sometimes to answer our “urgent” prayer request is so He can get the glory; in the end, it will work out for our good, whether the answer is yes or no. God said in Jeremiah 29:11: “I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out –plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for”(www.biblegateway.com - Message Bible).

Therefore God knows what we need and when we need it. God has our lives already planned out. All we have to do is line up with His plans for our life, not the other way around; we must conform to God’s will, God does not have to conform to ours.

I know how Mary felt when Jesus did not come when she thought He should come. I use to get upset with God because things did not work out like I thought they should. Oh how foolish I was! Thank God for His mercy, grace, and love for me; this kept Him from striking me down. I would verbally scream and throw temper tantrums and say, “God, why did you allow that to happen to me.” I thought God was supposed to give me everything I ask for because I was His child; now I know better. God will give us what is best for us, not everything we think we should have. I now look back and say, “Thank God for not honoring every request I made to Him. And the ones He did allow me to receive, I wish He would not have; He tried to tell me but I would not listen.

God might tell us, show us, or have other people tell us not to do something but the final choice is ours. He is not going to twist our arm to stop us from making a choice. But we must realize, there are consequences to every choice we make, whether good or bad. For every action there is a reaction (whether in the natural realm – you see it or spiritual realm – you can’t see it). And I paid dearly and unnecessarily, for the unwise choices I made. We know most of the time when we are out of the will of God because deep down in our spirits there is unrest. We might not know what it is but we know something is wrong. This is the time to honestly seek God for answers, not go on as if everything is alright. Remember, God can see farther down the road than we can so we need to let Him be God and follow His directions.