It's Time!

I recall vividly the evening that I went into labor with my son.

It was Sunday July 21, 2002. I'd been in church with my family, sitting beside my mother on the pew, counting the minutes between contractions. I actually have the notebook where she was writing everything down packed away in a box somewhere! But at about 5am Monday the 22nd, I was wakened very suddenly from my sleep with pain that I had not felt to that point.

I knew it was time to get everyone up and headed out. My dad, who had never had the privilege of going through this process with a grandchild (he missed my niece's birth, as he was in the hospital himself when she was born) was beside himself with anticipation. My Mom and I took our time and made sure we had all we needed. I even took a shower. He paced. He was such a trooper!

Finally, we arrived at the hospital and suddenly it hit me: this is really going to happen. This time tomorrow, I will be holding my newborn baby in my arms. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed, relieved, excited and scared all at once! It was an incredible feeling.

When we have been in waiting, anticipating the arrival of something we knew full well was coming,but we've had to allow natural processes to get it to the point of fruition, we often forget-it's GOING to happen! It is inevitable! My son's birth was going to happen-although those last two weeks of carrying him, I had times that I truly doubted he was EVER coming out of there!

Often, God's plans for our lives seem that way, too. Especially just before He opens the door fully for us to pass through. It seems like it all happens all at once and although we knew His promises were true and could be depended upon, we sort of lose sight of that reality along the way. Paul put it like this: "And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart." Galatians 6:9 RSV

Paul was closing out a letter to the Galatian church that had started with a very strong admonition: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel--" (Ch. 1:6 RSV)
He even asks them later on if they've been, "...bewitched" by some outside proselytiser! They had totally lost sight of what they'd seen Christ start in their lives.

We have all fallen into that same trap. Every believer has those moments where they are disillusioned by some aspect of the Faith that they cannot make heads or tails of. It usually comes at a point where they are discouraged. Nobody they turn to seems to have the answer they need. They pray and the heavens have no answers, no explanations, and they wonder, "Why am I doing this again? Can someone remind me what the point of all this is? PLEASE?"

It becomes very difficult to distinguish if we are even discerning the will of God and the voice of God correctly. For those of us who believe that God still ministers through prophetic utterances today, we may go back and read and replay those words God has given us and we say to ourselves, "...but God, You said that I'd be doing this and I'm not doing this! What gives?"

I want to bring you a little relief here and offer some deprogramming, as it were. Someone at some point probably told you not to question God. ALERT: Please, question God. Ask Him whatever you need to ask Him. He isn't thrown in the least by what you're asking Him. He's not surprised that you're asking...He WANTS YOU TO ASK! (As an aside here, I have often wondered if we dealt with our interpersonal relationships the way some of us relate with God how long our interpersonal relationships would last...but I digress...)

He is not sitting upon His throne waiting to mow you down the minute you dare ask Him what He is doing with you. I will tell you this though-He doesn't always answer immediately. It's been my experience that rather than telling us things, He likes to show us what He is up to and even then, only a little bit at a time! Quite honestly, I don't think many of us could handle the truth about ourselves through God's eyes. We'd never believe it if He showed us the strength and potential He has placed in each one of us.

But sometimes...somedays...we catch a glimpse of what He has placed in us. It's easiest to describe like this.

I stood in my kitchen this morning making pancakes for my boy. It has been unusually warm here the past couple of days so I decided to open the window in the kitchen as well as my screen door to let the cool morning breeze flood this stuffy little apartment. As I stood there mixing batter and scrambling eggs I caught a whiff of something...amazing. It was light and lovely and as I closed my eyes and breathed in deep I smiled.

Lilacs...the wonderful beautiful scent of spring lilacs filled that little kitchen, and for a moment I was no longer in that tight space standing over a hot burner. I was in the middle of a large yard on Antietam Creek, in an old farmhouse my grandmother rented once upon a time. It was just for a moment, but I was in another place and another time, just with a whiff of that scent. I knew spring was most definitely upon us. It's time had come!

This is exactly what it's like when we ask God to show us, give us just SOMETHING to grab hold of until that time comes for us. "What do you mean that time, Jennifer?"

I mean "the fullness of time", that appointed moment that God has when things come together and converge. It's the point where His Jeremiah 29 is set into motion for us and although it may not play out in front of us at warp speed, we do get to step through the door into the next season. Sometimes he swings the door wide open for us, other times He just opens it gradually so we aren't overwhelmed and bowled over by what He has set in motion for us.

It's amazing to me that God deals with each one of us individually. With the billions and billions of people on this planet, He still knows exactly when to give us the green light or when to stop us in our tracks. This can only come though when our lives have been yielded to Him completely. We can, like the crazy fish I watched today in the water at the mill, swim upstream against His current. That's a decision we make for ourselves.

I choose to yield. Yielding to His timing and His plan has made living my life so much easier over the past few years. I have learned not to get worn out with His schedule...although some days, it does seem like what He is doing will take a millennium to play out! I've gone to Him on those days and just collapsed at His feet exhausted and certain I could take no more waiting, He has always been faithful to renew me and set me back on me feet, as He points me, once more in the right direction.

He has not forgotten you, Beloved. If there is one thing I want you to know today it is that GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOU! His plan for you is right on track and you can take His promises and the words He has given you TO THE BANK! I have stated this over and over again to my readers, but it is only because it's something we need to hear over and over!

Our God is well able to do what He has said He would do. If you find yourself doubting His intentions toward you then at some point you dropped your faith and you need to double back and pick it up again. God does not lie! I will say that again: THE GOD YOU SERVE DOES NOT LIE! If He said He was going to bring you through, He's already set it up. If He said He would deliver you, then you better get ready to be delivered! If He promised He would feed you, clothe you and take care of you, then clear the table, open the closet doors and expect Him to show up with what you need!

I know what I'm talking about! And I am no different from you. I am one of His children just as you are and His promises to me are "yea and amen" just as they are to you!

Beloved, face today with the knowledge that just as the seasons come each year so your season is approaching. Nothing can stop the seasons from coming (no matter what Al Gore may say...) all you need to do is be ready for them.

Who knows, you may be making breakfast one morning and catch a whiff of His approaching...

I want you to be ready for it. I want you to be expecting it!

It's Time!


Be Blessed!

Jennifer Barnes
Uplift! Today Editor