All in Due Time

It is a great challenge to wait upon the LORD expectantly.  We find a great deal of comfort with schedules, future plans, meetings, and appointments.  We find joy in looking to the future and saying things like, "This time next year, we'll have a baby" or "A month from now, we'll be living in our new home."  There's a certain amount of joyful expectation for me to say, "In five days, I'll be back in the States."  I know I have a ticket for a plane departing to LAX next Thursday, so this isn't a stretch.  If by God's grace I manage to be at the airport at the right time, I have a seat reserved for me to go home.

People love to predict.  Watch any pre-game NFL program and listen to the commentators posture and argue concerning game predictions.  Every single week ESPN has predictions of the points each player will score.  It seems that predictions seem to give a sense of control in the outcome, even though they do not affect the scoring in any way.  We find this same prediction-mongering in politics, government, newscasts, reporters, and even among religions.  There is a certain amount of comfort in believing we know how things will turn out in the end.

I remember when I spoke to my wife's parents about marrying Laura.  They asked me reasonable questions about my future plans, which at the time centered around joining the Local 5 Insulator's Union.  I was asked what I would do if the plan to join the union fell through.  I really didn't have a "backup" plan apart from working hard and using all God-given ability to be successful.  It turned out that I was able to excel in the trade and I worked up the ranks from pre-apprentice, apprentice, journeyman, and later a foreman.  There was a logical progression which was very predictable.  At a point I could say, "In two years, I will be a journeyman and make such and such a wage."

It is strange to me that I have no such logical plan laid out before me and my family than obedience to God.  The stakes seem higher to people now that I have two boys in addition to my wife, but they remain the same:  will I be obedient to God and allow Him to direct my future?  God can provide food for the sparrows and knows when a single one falls.  Won't He abundantly supply my needs as well as my wife and kids?  I can make no prediction about what I will be doing in Australia, where I will be living, or how God intends I serve Him beyond preaching and serving.  Is that enough?  It is enough for me, and I don't know how much labor I should put into convincing others.  It boils down to faith.

Hebrews 11:13 says this concerning the patriarchs of faith:  "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."  Here are prime evidences of faith:  assurance that God's promises are true, embracing the promises and denying even what is seen, and confession of these promises in word and deed.  I suppose we can ask ourselves, how do we measure up to this standard of faith?  How willing am I to take God at His word?  Am I willing to lay aside all things that my arms might be free to embrace God's truth?  Whether we live of die, may we do it for the glory of the God who is, was, and who ever will be.  Faith needs no backup plan when faith is placed in God's Word.