In His Time

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  

(Romans 8:28, NKJV)

For most people, the holiday season has ended and now we are settling back to a routine of the day, week and month.  After the high of the holiday excitement, some feel exhausted and somewhat deflated, longing for the past few carefree days.  For others, there is great enthusiasm and excitement on the planning of how 2026 is set to be.  It is a period of hopeful adjustments as we clarify actions for the days ahead.  While we do our best to take precaution so that all works out, it is also a fact that there are times when our plans do not turn out as expected.  A few days ago, there was air travel disruptions within Europe due to severe weather conditions.  This was not planned or anticipated by the travellers and so when the airlines informed of delays and cancellations, the travel schedules were impacted.  As human beings, we look at this as an inconvenience and yes it is depending on the reason for the travel, but is it possible that we also look at this disruption positively.  Hear me out, the airlines are in business and will not be cancelling flights without good reason, what if they did not take this cautious step and continued with the flights only to get into impossible turbulence – possibly resulting in loss of many lives.  For the traveller however, the delay means adjustment.

Our reference verse calls us to remember that according to the plans of God for His people, all things work out for our good.  We might not see the good at the moment, but down the road we can look back and hopefully appreciate that there was a restraining yet loving hand of God over our plans.  Beloved, even as we make our plans, let us remember that we do not know what the next day will look like, our understanding of our surrounding and happenings is very limited.  Maybe it is time we gave ourselves and others too, some grace when things do not turn out as initially expected.  The bible reminds us that when a man’s heart plans his ways, it is the Lord God who directs his steps  (Proverbs 16:9).  Ours is to make the plans, commit them to God and He in turn directs our actions toward the actualization.  We are not the ultimate, He is.  To many of us, this is hard to take in, for it means we are not fully in control yet that is what we want to have – some form of control.  It is humbling and yet freeing to accept that we do not have the full responsibility to make things happen, that way, we can be kind to ourselves.  God says in His word that His throne is established in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all, (Psalm 103:19).  He takes responsibility over all things.  We are reminded that He made the earth by His wisdom, set the heavens by His understanding, and when He speaks the waters in the heavens respond (Jeremiah 10:12-13).  Nature knows His power and honour Him as the one in control, we too bow to Him, who alone is eternal and all knowing.  Job acknowledges God’s omnipotence when he said that no purpose of God would be thwarted (Job 42:2).  Brethren, this is not to say that God does not care about us, indeed He cares for us more than we can appreciate.  He tells us that He takes care of the birds of the air, He knows the number of the hairs on our heads and to our surprise, none of  our hairs falls without His knowing  (Matthew 10:29-31).  That extent of His care and love for us is beyond our ability to comprehend and as we seek to take hold of this reality, we can only bow in worship, bow in surrender to His ways and will.

Beloved, our Father is the all powerful and He makes all things work out for our good in His own perfect time.  Our reference verse gives us a caveat though, that this applies to those who are called according to His purpose.  This has often caught me in times when I sense things not going right, I then wonder about God’s purpose in the situation.  The assurance we have is that if we are operating in His calling and in our purpose, then we can rest in the knowing that regardless of how things look right now, they will end up for our good. 

Thoughts:

What have you committed to God?

Where do you stand on the control surrender spectrum?

How are you experiencing His perfect leading?