Timing

You've probably heard the cliche, "Timing is everything."  And, to be sure, if an opportunity is presented before you are ready or after you are no longer able to take advantage of it, it may as well have been withheld altogether.

It is also said that "Opportunity only knocks once," suggesting that we must be ready to act upon it when it is presented.  Of course, that imperative is subordinate to the fact of timing.  When I was 16, I was offered the opportunity to buy a 1970 Chevelle Super Sport but the problem was that I didn't have the money or the credit to make the purchase at the time.

 When I was 17, I wanted to enlist in the ARMY like my brothers did but was not allowed until I was 18, by which time I decided that the Air Force was a better opportunity.   Again, timing trumped opportunity.
To be offered something or to seek after something at the wrong time is to, in the end, to do without that something.  However, when something is presented at just the right time results in having that something.  Timing, in effect, is everything and to be ready when opportunity knocks is important.

But her's the rub: We don't always know when the time is right.  What we want and what is offered to us doesn't necessarily sinc with the right time.  We often fail by striking the iron when it's cold or picking up the potato when it's too hot.

This inability to know the time causes many to doubt God who doesn't necessarily act in accordance with our understanding of timing.  We have the idea that God should answer our prayers when we present them but God presents things when the timing is right.  For instance, Jesus told the disciples, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear" (Jn 16:12).

Jesus even warned his mother not to press him too much about using his power of divinity saying, I “My hour has not yet come" (Jn 2:4).  God's timing is perfect, neither too early or too late.  It has been said that while God may pass on showing up early, he will never show up too late.

My point in saying all this is that God is faithful but acts according to his timing, not ours.  And to trust in God is to trust in his timing. "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom 5:6).  This is God's timing, "just right."  Jus' Say'n.