What Time Is It

One of the hardest parts of my Christian journey is waiting on God's timing, or on the flip side, moving when HE says move.
I am reading 1 Samuel and I think I found someone who understands my pain.
Saul's getting ready to go fight a major battle BUT Samuel the prophet tells him to wait for 7 days until he arrives and then they would offer a sacrifice to God.
1 Samuel 10:8 “Go down ahead of me to Gilgal. I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do.”

As always I will remind you to read the passage for yourself, this is the Gena version.

It was customary for a priest to offer sacrifices and pray to God. He would then tell the people what God said, God would tell them how to not only fight but more importantly how to win the battle. The people trusted God to help them (what a novel idea.)

Now the Philistine army was HUGE they had lots of chariots and lots of soldiers so as you can imagine the Isrealites were scared. They start to freak out which in turn makes their leader Saul start to freak out. When Saul sees some of his soldiers are leaving he gets nervous because Samuel still hasn't shown up so he takes matters into his own hands. He didn't trust Samuel or God because they didn't show up when he thought they should. Does this sound familiar to anyone other than me???
Later Samuel says that it is better to obey God than to sacrifice to Him.
It's easy to wait on the Lord when your circumstances are easy BUT when they start getting out of your control it is definitely harder. When time is going by slowly and each moment feels like an insect stinging your flesh we want God to put us out of our misery and tell us this time in our life is over.
We want God to fix it and fix it NOW!

It is at this place and time Samuel tells us it's better to be obedient than to sacrifice. Saul made the sacrifice to God hoping it would please Him and He would overlook the fact that the wrong guy was doing it. He was trying to finagle God. (when was the last time you used the word finagle? I like it finagle finagle, sorry.)
I shared with you in a past jewel that the Lord recently moved us. Well I want to take you back and share part of that story. I knew God was letting me know we would be moving when my lease was up but to be honest I was kind of liking where I was. We had lots of friends in our complex, my grandsons were within walking distance, we had a pool, a gym (I intended to use some day) and a great porch with an awesome view of the lake.
I was getting comfortable. If you are a regular reader you also know the Lord provides for me and my family in unusual ways so I am 100% dependent on Him and He has never let me down. So wasn't I surprised when one month I had no money for my rent. I began feeling like Saul, freaking out a bit, and reminding God of my sacrifices which of course He was not impressed with because He's about obedience and did I mention He told me we would be moving?

The Lord did come through in His perfect timing, however, I got the message loud and clear it was time to leave.
Once again I'm happy in my new place because I know I'm where God sent me but that doesn't mean the leaving wasn't difficult.
Then there's the flip side, staying put when you want to move. The dreaded

We say that to people all the time, “you just need to wait on the Lord” but when your the one waiting you just want to slap someone. Sometimes that wait feels like forever!
Like many of my single friends I think I would like to be in a relationship one day.
What do you think the pat answer is when you mention that to Christians in a relationship? You guessed it “wait on the Lord.” I have been single for 17 years. I'm pretty sure that counts as waiting. I'm not saying I have been ready for 17 years. It has been a process and partly a personal decision but it's still been a long time.

Being in a bad relationship is also hard and praying for things to change so you can be in a better place can be exhausting.

Gems I don't know where you are in God's timing for your life but I want to encourage you that His timing is truly perfect and waiting on Him is honestly the best answer. It is here that God not only shows you how to fight but more importantly how to win.
I'm sure you can think of a time in your life when you got ahead of God or waited some where too long, either place is uncomfortable because you know you're being disobedient.
I have found the best way to get through it is not to use “man's” clock. To understand everything has happened in the spirit and we are just walking it out in the natural.
I have to take my focus off my timing which is so limited and know God's timing has no bounds and His perfect plan will be completed, it's His promise. So throw away your natural clock and rest in the fact that Jesus always knows what time it is, His perfect timing.