Sometimes the biggest struggles we face aren’t in understanding God but trusting Him.

Someone once penned the following words about trusting God’s timing:

Until I learned to trust,
I never learned to pray,
and I did not learn to fully trust
till sorrows came my way.

Until I felt my weakness,
His strength I never knew,
nor dreamed til I was stricken
that He could see me through.

He who drinks deepest of sorrow
drinks deepest too of grace;
He sends the storm so He Himself
can be our hiding place.

His heart that seeks our highest good,
knows well when things annoy;
We would not long for heaven
if earth held only joy.”

Hannah( Read 1 Sam.1:1-7) knew well the need to trust God’s timing.—- Hannah had all she needed materially. But she didn’t have children of her own. As much as she wanted a child, God hadn’t blessed her with one. In fact, she was even taunted because of her bareness.

Hannah held on to the dream of one day being a mother. But as one barren year passed after another, Hannah grieved deeply. Her sense of loss permeated every ear of her life, and she shed countless bitter tears.

How often do we respond to suffering like Hannah? We dream, desire, and plan, yet when God providentially hinders our goals, we feel hurt and upset and question God’s love. We want things on our time, at our pace, in our way. And when they don’t come, we often give up hope.

God’s timing is always perfect whether it matches your own plans or not. When you realize that everything that happens to you is working toward your good, you’ll accept God’s answers to your requests, no matter what they are.

The reason so many Christians feel hurt when things don’t go their way is because they haven’t surrendered their will to God. Are you content with how God directs your life, even if you don’t necessarily like the path He has for you? Give Him full control and, like Hannah, lay your requests before Him, content with whatever He has for you. (From Daily in the Word)

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.

John 11:5-6

One day, the great preacher Phillips Brooks was pacing back and forth in his study. He was particularly agitated and anxious that day and someone said to him, “Dr. Brooks, what’s wrong?”

“It’s what’s always wrong,” he said. “I’m in a hurry and God isn’t!”

So often our culture tells us to want things and want them now! But sometimes God delays his response and you can be left wondering, “Where is God?”

In the story above, Lazarus died and was brought back to life by Jesus. And looking at that in hindsight, it’s easy to have faith because we know today how the story ends. But I’ll bet for a while Mary and Martha had that exact same question: “Where is God?”

But don’t be deceived. Just because God may delay a response doesn’t mean that he’s not there! God cares deeply for you and about your problems. He will absolutely come through… but it will be in his own timing. Mary and Martha were praying for Lazarus to be healed, but Jesus had an even bigger miracle he wanted to do. He wanted to raise him from the dead!

So make your prayer, “God, while I want you to do ________, help me to trust in your perfect timing.” When you begin to pray in that way, you’ll open yourself to seeing God truly work miraculously in your life!  (Power Point)

TRUST IN GOD’S TIMING WHEN YOU PRAY BECAUSE HIS PLAN IS PERFECT!

Have you ever noticed that doing God’s will requires us to do things that are contrary to our natural way of thinking? This article from football coach Joe Gibbs is an example:

These are tough economic times all around. The same rules and assumptions that used to be part of the wall paint of life don’t seem to apply any more. Housing values don’t just automatically go up. The next stop on the Dow Jones index may not be a thousand more, perhaps a thousand less. Dividends that used to pay like clockwork may now be calculated at pennies on the share, if at all.

So when we open our Bibles and read, “Blessed is he that considereth the poor” (Psalm 41:1), our minds almost immediately begin thinking up disqualifiers. Sure, if we had the money. Sure, if milk and gasoline weren’t so expensive. Sure, if our 401(k) was still promising us an ample retirement.

But the Bible’s principles for sound money management are not dependent on the ebbs and flows of the stock market. Just because prices are up and wages are down, biblical truth is not temporarily suspended. Lean years don’t exempt us from pursuing God’s way of doing things. In fact, it’s in times like these—when real need is a lot closer to your front door than it may have seemed in days past—that the blessing of giving is actually the greatest. Your generous, sacrificial acts of service and care in Christ’s name have more potential for touching hearts now than they ever did. You can take that to the bank.

Remember, God expects us to be more concerned about people than we are about possessions!