time

I heard a story which illustrates how we often confuse God's timing with ours. A country newspaper had been running a series of articles on the value of church attendance.

One day, a letter to the editor was received in the newspaper office. It read, "Print this if you dare. I have been trying an experiment. I have a field of corn which I plowed without praying. I planted it without a prayer. I did all the cultivating without praying. I gathered the harvest  and hauled it to my barn without praying. I find that my harvest this October is just as great as any of my neighbors' who went to church and prayed much. So where was God all this time?"

The editor printed the letter, but added his reply at the bottom. "Your mistake was in thinking that God always settles his accounts in October."

That's often our mistake as well, isn't it - thinking that God should act when and how we want him to act, according to our timetable rather than his. The fact that our vision is limited, finite, unable to see the end from the beginning, somehow escapes our mind. So we complain; we get frustrated; we accuse God of being indifferent to us.

That's when God gently reminds us that... "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts". (Isaiah 55:8-9)

God's timetable is perfect. He will do exactly what is best for us - in His own time - according to his wonderful plans for us, because He loves us so much. Wait! Be patient! His clock may show a different time than our clock, but it's the right one.