In God’ Time

It’s Christmas time, you know what that means. The shopping malls are busy, children are taking pictures, when you buy a coffee or tea, they’re putting your drink in nice festive cups, and they are playing beautiful Christmas songs everywhere. It’s Christmas time! There is a buzz, and I love it!

But this is also a time when it can be difficult. When you are surrounded by lights, joyful songs, happiness, and fun, but your life does not reflect that, it can be difficult to feel the energy of Christmas.

During this same time, some people are reflecting on the loss of a loved one. Someone will lose their job. Some will face sickness, others will face heartbreak. While it’s one of the most wonderful times of the year, it can also be one of the hardest.

What do you do when you are a follower of God, and you are believing for a breakthrough, but you don’t see it coming? How are you supposed to process and move forward?

Two people in the Bible who understand this are Elizabeth and the priest Zechariah. Both were described as righteous, blameless, and people who observed God’s commands. These people were good; they loved God. Yet, the one thing they didn’t have in their life was a baby. In fact, the Bible says they were old, and Elizabeth could not conceive.

Imagine you are a priest and you have no son to carry your name. Imagine you are a woman and you have no baby to hold. Yet these two people in the Bible, even though they faced such hardship and pain they kept trusting God and kept serving Him.

I believe this Christmas that needs to be our response as well. Even though you haven’t seen the breakthrough, and you don’t know why it’s taking so long, will you still trust God? Will you still serve Him?

If you read the rest of the story, you will read that Zechariah was chosen to go into the temple to burn incense, and while he is there, the angel Gabriel begins to talk to him. He tells him that his wife is going to have a child. You are to call him, John. And he will be the one to call people back to the Lord.

Zechariah couldn’t believe this, and he doubted the angel, and his lack of faith in God meant he was silent and could not talk until the baby came.

But the angel, after rebuking Zechariah, said something else to him that was key. He says to him, "You did not believe, but it will happen at the appointed time."

Well, that is a word for us today – the appointed time. What is the appointed time? The appointed time is the time when God allows what He has promised to us to happen in our lives. The appointed time is not when we want it to happen, but when God allows it to happen.

You see, if John, their son, had come before or later, it would have been the wrong time. He needed to come at the appointed time. The time God wanted it to happen. This made sense because John’s birth and ministry were prophesied by the prophets Isaiah and Malachi that he would prepare the way of the Lord, and he would be a messenger.

You see, God chose Elizabeth and Zechariah to be the ones to carry this special baby for God’s purpose and plan.

That’s why we can’t say we are cursed, forgotten, abandoned, because we serve the God who knows what He’s doing. He has a special plan for all of us as we wait with expectation and serve Him in faith.

In fact, the name Zechariah means God remembers. So when we think that God has forgotten, let us remember he hasn’t forgotten. It’s all in God’s time.

Whatever you’re hoping for, whatever you’re praying for, whatever you have been promised by God, wait in faith and believe it is going to happen. But not on your time, but in God’s time.