GOD’S FAVORITE TIME

“Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda… Here a great number of disabled people used to lie -- the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’”  (John 5:2-6 NIV)

It doesn’t matter if it’s thirty-eight years, seventy-six years, or only thirty-eight seconds. God has no time limits. He has no limits at all. But He does have a favorite time, and that time is now.

Why not ask for help now?

Maybe because you hear the voices around you saying, “Not the time.” “It’s too late.” “It’s too embarrassing.” “Just wait it out and work it out.”

Maybe one of those voices is your own. You’ve drifted too far down the creek, and now you’ve given up and you’re resigned to drifting some more. But there is no distance, no time limit, no reason at all. Jesus will come to you when you are at the end of yourself. He’ll come when you’re helpless and out of power. The man in John 5 learned that even thirty-eight years wasn’t too late…

It’s not too late, and it never has been. And there’s never been a better time, a more perfect time, than the present moment. That’s always the one in which [God] wants to meet you. 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins”

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STRENGTH FOR TODAY

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”  (Matthew 6:34 The Message)

That last phrase is worthy of your highlighter: “When the time comes.”

“I don’t know what I’ll do if my husband dies.” You will, when the time comes.

When my children leave the house, I don’t think I can take it.” It won’t be easy, but strength will arrive when the time comes.

“I could never lead a church. There is too much I don’t know.” You may be right. Or you may be wanting to know everything too soon. Could it be that God will reveal answers to you when the time comes?

The key is this: Meet today’s problems with today’s strength. Don’t start tackling tomorrow’s problems until tomorrow. You do not have tomorrow’s strength yet. You simply have enough for today.

-- Max Lucado in “Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear -- The Promise of Psalm 23”

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GOD’S HELP IS TIMELY

“He leads me beside still waters.”  (Psalm 23:2 NKJV)

God leads us. He tells us what we need to know when we need to know it. As another New Testament writer would affirm: “We will find grace to help us when we need it.” (Hebrews 4:16 NLT)

Listen to a different translation: “Let us therefore boldy approach the throne of our gracious God, where we may receive mercy and in His grace find timely help.” (Hebrews 4:16 NEB)

God’s help is timely. He helps us the same way a father gives plane tickets to his family. When I travel with my kids, I carry all our tickets in my satchel. When the moment comes to board the plane, I stand between the attendant and the child. As each daughter passes, I place a ticket in her hand. She, in turn, gives the ticket to the attendant. Each one receives the ticket in the nick of time.

What I do for my daughters God does for you. He places Himself between you and the need. And at the right time, He gives you the ticket…

God leads us. God will do the right thing at the right time. And what a difference that makes.

Since I know His provision is timely, I can enjoy the present [without worry.]

-- Max Lucado in “Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Meant to Bear”

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JUST ENOUGH, JUST IN TIME

“Give us this day our daily bread…”  (Matthew 6:11)

When God miraculously provided just enough manna for the Israelites, Scripture says that He provided just enough. The language describing God’s provision is extremely precise. Those who gathered a lot “did not have too much” and those who gathered a little “did not have too little.” God provided just enough. Then He gave them a curious command: not to keep any of it overnight.

Why does God provide just enough? Why would God forbid leftovers? What’s wrong with taking a little initiative and gathering enough manna for two days or two weeks? Here’s my take: the manna was a daily reminder of their daily dependence upon God.

Not much has changed. We still need a daily reminder of our dependence upon God. So while we may want a one-year supply of mercy, His mercies are new every morning. If God provided too much too soon, we’d lose our raw dependence upon God, our raw hunger for God. So God usually provides just enough, just in time.

I have scribbled the initials JEJIT in the margins of my Bible at various places where God provides just enough, just in time. He does it with the widow who is down to her last jar of olive oil. He does it when the Israelites are trapped between the Egyptian army and Red Sea. He does it when the boat is about to capsize on the Sea of Galilee during the perfect storm. And He does it again with the two fish and twenty thousand hungry people.

-- Mark Batterson in The Grave Robber


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