The fullness of time

When is the right time for a blessing? We tend to make the executive decison as soon as we decide what we want. ASAP please. Our timelines are carefully mapped out, thank you very much.

Oh, and let’s run it by God. He’s the one who’s planning good things for my life, right?

God, this is what my heart desires. Please grant me this request. Remember you’ve promised that you will fulfil the desires of my heart and that every good and perfect gift is from you?

PS: Please don’t be late.  

Ever prayed a version of this prayer? Simply put – God, it’s time for you to show up and bring on the goodness.

Abraham prayed this prayer. Isaac prayed this prayer. God and they were on more than a first name basis. God was a covenant partner in their lives.  Yet, their journeys were bisected with a divine pause. A setting up of camp at an agonizingly long brink of what they longed for. God, the God of goodness and love and mercy made them wait for the promised pinnacle of blessing.

There were more that prayed this prayer too. Here’s to looking at the elderly priest in the book of Luke. Zechariah was no stranger to the stories of his ancestors. The tales of Abraham’s faith were famous. Zechariah is also an elderly man now like the revered father of faith,  plodding through his daily grind, endlessly praying the same prayer he had probably prayed for years. Hoping against hope? So it would seem, UNTIL God answers. He actually answers. He personally dispatches the archangel from the throne of God to give Zechariah the spectacular newsflash that not only has God heard and answered his prayer, but God has answered beyond what Zechariah could have ever dreamed for himself. Gabriel drops the bomb that Zechariah and Elisabeth will have a son filled with the Holy Spirit from his infancy – a son who will one of the greatest prophets Israel has ever known.

Hallelujah and amen! God pulls back the curtains of the future a crack, lets Zechariah look through, and imparts the stunning news that Zechariah himself is an integral part of that redemptive plan. God is working on his longed prayed for prayer. I think I can say with certainty that hardly any of us get a personal announcement that God has heard our desires and has our answer and even more than we requested coming down the pipeline.

What is Zechariah’s gut reaction to this announcement of his answered prayer?

That’s pretty awesome and all, God, but you’re too late. Do you see how old I am? Clearly this is beyond my ability. Maybe twenty years ago….but. How can this possibly happen?

Zechariah is consumed with counting his own limitations. He is spellbound by the knowledge of his tangible dis-abilities. He doesn’t believe God can answer his prayer, the prayer he had been praying for years upon years – the prayer he had been praying that very morning.

Oh how this sounds like an echo of our own hearts. Do we even believe anymore? Or are we mindlessly muttering the same request for days and months and years, just wanting God to notice that we are still without and still in need of a blessing of any shape or size. Hoping God finds some way to make us happy. Are we simply hoping for second best or plan B? Because, clearly, if we were meant to have this great blessing, it would have come at the right time.

And clearly, God, wasn’t that like 10 years ago?

Except for one small fact. God’s right time is the fullness of time. God’s right time has absolutely nothing to do with the intersection of current our abilities and propitious circumstances. God’s right time has so much more to do with His eternal, redemptive play-by-play that encompasses SO MUCH MORE than our personal story. God wins. And He wants more than anything to save anyone He can along the way. And however long it takes for this great controversy in the universe to be resolved and God’s glory to be vindicated once and for all – we are invited to be an integral part of the plotline that culminates in heaven itself. And not just us, but with just as many fellow saved sinners as God can persuade to come with us. It is entirely possible that your answer, your long-awaited blessing is going to come later than you want but precisely when you need, and precisely when someone or something else beyond you needs. Because God is never late. God is orchestrating victory. In your life and in the world.  

So let God be victorious in your life. Allow God to irradiate His power into your weakness. The weaker you are, the more power God can impart. We pray that God is love, we thank Him for His goodness, and talk of His power without a blink of the eye, so how about believing it? Think about it. Do you in this moment actually believe it? If you do, how might you live and think differently? Think of that prayer. You know the one. Think of what you have been crying for. Think of what you think God has forgotten. Choose to believe. Take God at His word, look back at God’s ultimate wins in the past, and you will know without a doubt that unanswered prayers do not exist. Do yourself a favor and reflect on Abraham. Meditate on Zechariah. Read that promise in James:

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.” (Js. 1:16)

Please don’t let that shadow of a doubt cross your mind. Why should a shadow keep you from the joy of expecting the promise?

Yes, it all has to do with timing. And guess what? Just in case you were wondering, those good things will lose nothing for the wait.  They might even grow into something greater than you even bargained for. God does have a reputation for sweetening the deal. Ultimately though, our timeline on earth is merely a blip on the radar. Blessed eternity is on the way. Eternity. Our seeming losses and setbacks here are nothing compared to the glory God has prepared for us.

Maybe God is waiting because He wants to keep you close while you’re here. If we’re asking we’re engaging. If we’re engaging we can be learning. If we can be learning we can be growing. God deeply desires us to grow and prosper and find joy in His presence. And years of building a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father could be just the stepping stone that will finally bridge the gap between our limitations and God’s limitless abundance.  Maybe it will take years until you can stop staring at the scanty rations in your hand and only be mesmerized by the abundance in His hand. Because it is only what is in His hand that matters.

God’s word does not fail. God is waiting. And that should excite you!

The grand finale always comes at the end.