Devotionals

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At the Time Appointed

Genesis 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee...

God always has a “time appointed”. What does this say about Him? Three things stand out to me. First, He is a God of order. Second, He is in control of my situation. He knows exactly what to do and when to do it. Third, He has a definite plan for me, not something He threw together at the last minute because He was busy doing something else and forgot.

We like to quote the first part of this verse. “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” We believe it, but we believe it conditionally. We believe nothing is too hard for the Lord if He works in the time frame we have appointed for Him. Remember Martha? “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” She believed nothing was too hard for Jesus, but only in the time limits she had set.

Another example is King Saul. The Israelites were under attack from their arch-nemeses, the Philistines. The prophet Samuel gave Saul specific instructions not to offer any sacrifices, that he himself would do it when he arrived. Saul waited seven days, the time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not show up after seven days. To make a long story short, Saul took it upon himself to offer the sacrifice. As soon as Saul had finished, Samuel showed up. If only he had waited a little bit longer.

Now before we point our self-righteous fingers at Saul, we have all done the exact same thing at one time or another in our Christian walk. When the Lord did not show up in our situation when we thought He should, we took it upon ourselves to bring to pass the answer. As soon as we were finished, God showed up. If only we had waited a little bit longer. Saul paid big time; because he had put a time limit on the Almighty, God put a time limit on Saul’s kingdom. “Thy kingdom shall not continue.”

If we are to unconditionally believe nothing is too hard for the Lord, then we cannot divorce the second part of this verse from the first. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? No, but only in the time He has appointed for us. Ecclesiastes 3:11a: He hath made everything beautiful in His time.

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