Questioning God's Timing

Read Exodus 4




I question God's timing. I find it easy to second guess His plan because it doesn't always make sense to me. I see my timeline, neatly planned out and when life doesn't fit, I get miffed. "Why is this taking so long? I need this now, not 6 months from now. Not 2 years from now. And especially not 10 years from now when I no longer need it."

"Who has known the mind of the Lord that we may instruct him?" 

I Corinthians 2:16

Gods ways are not our ways. We can't see the big picture.




A song I heard at a church production gets stuck in my head whenever I question God's timing. It's as though the Holy Spirit wants to prompt me [repeatedly] with this reminder.



God's ways are not our ways.

His plans are not our plans,

but to Him we must be faithful

someday we'll understand,

God's ways are not our ways.



It takes a tremendous amount of trust to step back and say, "Ok, in your timing Lord."





I was telling my children the familiar story of Moses. I grew up in Sunday School with Flannelgraph as aid and could recite these stories in my sleep.




Or so I thought.

"So Moses was adopted by the princess and grew up in the palace. It must have been very nice to have everything he wanted. He enjoyed the wealth and privilege of an Egyptian. 

But at the same time, he knew he was not Egyptian by birth, he was an Israelite. The Israelites were slaves and were treated very badly. 

One day Moses saw a guard hurting one of the slaves and Moses got mad. So mad that he killed the guard. That didn't go over so well with his Egyptian family and Moses had to flee to the desert. While he was in the desert, God called him to lead the people of Israel to freedom."

My husband was listening in and jumped in on one detail. "Forty years. Moses was exiled in the desert for forty years before God finally called him to free the Israelites."





Wowsa, that's a Sunday School detail that skipped my attention. I had to run to the Bible for confirmation (Exodus 2-5). Forty years! Moses was already 40 when he killed the guard, so this change in his life would have been hard to swallow. He was 80 when God said, "Go free my people." God had a plan, but needed Moses' obedience, trust, and patience first.




It took awhile.




I was encouraged as I read through Moses' story again with adult eyes. His life was rich with adventure and emotion. Freeing the people, parting the sea, miracle after miracle. But it took YEARS to be revealed. Moses had to have questioned God's timing, just like we do.




But to Him we must be faithful and someday (hopefully) we'll understand. God has an amazing plan, but His ways are not our ways. We all question God's timing and it's okay to ask. But we should also be asking for what God needed from Moses, obedience, trust, and patience.