Waiting for God’s Perfect Timing
By Kelly Graham In 1983, I vividly remember dancing around my bedroom, hairbrush in hand, singing Cindy Lauper’s smash hit, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” As a young girl, I wholeheartedly believed that having fun was what life was all about. Thankfully today, as a grown woman, I have grown to realize that there is so much more to life than just having fun… and more importantly, there is something greater that I really need. Being in the center of God’s will. Now, I certainly didn’t come to this realization overnight! As I have grown in my relationship with God, I’ve had the usual distractions that every woman faces. I haven’t always wanted God’s perfect will, but often instead wanted my own selfish desires. Yet God has moved me along in my journey with him with two verses I want to share with you. The first verse is Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Notice the words to give you. This is a promise that God is going to bring to us his specific plans for our future. He is in control! That doesn’t mean we can’t have ambitions, but we certainly must make sure our ambitions are aligned with His will. The second verse God has used in my life is Proverbs 16:9, which says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” What this verse means is that at times you will have to plan things out, try to figure things out, start testing things out. As you are doing all of this, God then leads and directs your steps as you are walking them out and before you know it, you will have arrived at the point where God wants you to be. The problem is that we come from a culture of impatience in which we demand our wants and needs to be satisfied instantly. We think we know a quicker and less painful way. As C.S. Lewis put it, “We’re not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” We also certainly wonder how long God is going to take! The Bible teaches that not only does God have a set plan and a set future for your life and mine, he also has a set timetable in which he will manifest all of these plans. We simply have to learn to have patience during these waiting periods! Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “God is never late; he’s seldom early; he’s always right on time.” This means that God will come in with the breakthrough on his time schedule, not ours! I think that is the hardest part for me at the moment: the waiting. Every day I have to pray for the patience to not jump ahead and make my own plans… but to wait on God’s perfect will for my life.
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