Thursday, February 17, 2011

God's Natural World: God's Proper Timing

God's Natural World: God's Proper Timing: "Today was a warm, spring like day for the middle of February. I wasn't too busy with work so I decided to drive up to the SC Botanical..."

God's Proper Timing

Today was a warm, spring like day for the middle of February.  I wasn't too busy with work so I decided to drive up to the SC Botanical Gardens in Clemson to see if by some miracle any wildflowers or for that matter any other flower might be blooming yet.  Now from past experience I had a pretty good idea that chances were slim to none that I'd find anything blooming.  I did manage to find one round lobbed hepatica blooming all by its lonesome, but for the mostly there were no blooms or even hints of anything about to bloom just yet.
You see, just because the weather was nice and warm this week, the flowers knew it wasn't yet their time to come out and bloom.  If they bloomed before their time perhaps it would snow again or get icy cold again and then they would die early.  Insects such as ants depend on the seeds of these flowers to provide them with food at the proper time.  Right now the insects are hibernating where its safe and warm and have their winter food all stored up.  If the plants gave their seed too soon then there might be a food shortage later on for the insects!

This reminded me about God's perfect and proper timing for our own lives.  Sometimes we go through seasons that seem dry and fruitless and other times when we seem to flourish.  It may seem that at times God isn't involved in our lives at all or at least very little seems to be happening as soon as we would like.
Its hard to wait on God to act and sometimes we take things into our own hands and try to force God's will too soon.  This can prove to be painful as we may end up suffering the consequences of making a decision that's not right for us or perhaps would have been better made at a later time.  God reminds us of this in Ecclesiates 3:1-8  "There is a time for everything, anda season for very activity under the sun.".....

There have been times in my own life where I longed for something to happen.  Times when I was single and longed to be loved.  Times when I had no clue where I was going or what I should be doing with my life. Times when I searched for successes and found none. Times when I just wanted a friend and none could be found.  Friend, you may think God has forgotten about you, that He is too slow to act or that He just doesn't care about your circumstance.  But be patient and wait upon God to act. He knows you better than you know yourself and knows what you need and when its best to give it to you.  May I suggest that during these times of waiting that you make God your all in all.  Find in Him the contentment He longs to give you.  And when the time is right for relationships, jobs, material possessions, etc. know that He will grant you what you need when you need it and not before.  Ask, Seek, Knock, and most of all WAIT!!!  So easy to say but so difficult to do.  When you do you will find you are flexing your faith muscles and building a stronger relationship with your heavenly Father.