3 Actionable Steps As You Wait on God’s Timing

The idea of waiting on God’s timing is something that many Christians struggle with. We know that God knows everything that He will allow things to come to pass in their proper time but when we actually have to wait for His perfect time it’s a different thing.

What Does It Mean to Wait for God’s Timing?

Can we agree that everything has ideal timing? For example, a tree has an ideal time that it needs to grow before it begins to produce fruit. A fruit had an ideal time before it begins to ripen and is good for eating. In each of these cases, there may be variations between types.

The ideal time for me to start a family is not necessarily the ideal time for you to start yours. If we begin with this belief that everything has an ideal time before the results culminate, then it may be easier for us to understand what it means to wait for God’s timing.

Because God is omniscient, He knows the best timing in which everything needs to happen to achieve the desired result.

That’s why it is so important to wait for God’s timing…as much as we think we know, we don’t have all the information. We don’t have all the details about all the other players and situations that have to come into play for the thing that we want to happen to occur without dire consequences.

How do you wait on God’s timing?

But waiting for God’s perfect timing can be hard. In our frail humanity, we want what we want and we want it now. Here are three things we can do to remain patient while we’re waiting.

1. Remember that God’s timing is always perfect. Think about how He’s come through for you in the past and know that because He is faithful, He’ll come through for you again.

2. Do a Bible study on patience. You’re not the first person who wanted God to move faster than He appears to be moving (just look at Abraham and Sarah). Spend some time reading about Bible characters who tried to “help” God and the disastrous results of their actions.

3. Pray for patience. Ask God to help you to wait graciously as He works things out on your behalf.

My Review of Since You’ve Been Gone

When Leah decided to reopen her grandfather’s store, the WIFI, she was prepared to convince  George Kensington who owned half the business of its viability,  she was not prepared to deal with Jon Kensington who made her feel all kinds of things she didn’t want to feel.

I liked Leah and Jon’s story. He was a genuinely nice guy who was trying to balance a lot of things after losing his parents. His love for Leah was so evident it’s amazing that she didn’t see it. I do believe some of the problems of their relationship could have been prevented if he had been more open with what he was dealing with but I understand why he didn’t.

Leah was the perfect fit for Jon (when she wasn’t running from him) and it was nice watching their relationship unfold as she learned to trust him.

I also loved the story of Madison and Colby. When we first met Madison in You Belong With Me, she seemed like a manipulative, shallow person. And maybe she was. But her history had shaped the person she had been and by the time we meet her in Since You’ve Been Gone, she’d been redeemed.

Colby recognized from the beginning that there was something special about her and he didn’t stop trying to prove it to her.

Know God: Madison began a personal relationship with God and her life changed for the better. Yes, she still had to deal with hard things, but God surrounded her with people who cared about her and showed her that she was alone.

Know yourself: if you had asked Leah at the beginning of the series if she knew who she was, she’d probably have said yes. But in Since You’ve Been Gone she did a lot of growing up. She faced some of the things she’d been hiding (and running) from and became a stronger person because of it.

Run your race: for so much of this Since You’ve Been Gone, Jon struggled to be the person he thought his father wanted him to be. In fact, he tried very hard to be his father. But eventually, he had to accept that he couldn’t be his father,  he could only be himself.

At some point, each of us has to come to that realization, otherwise, we’re doomed to failure because we can only be who we were created to be and not someone else.

There were many themes in Since You’ve Been Gone, one of which was that sometimes we judge people too harshly without knowing their stories. We judge them and we forget that Christ died for all of us. God can redeem even the person who seems broken beyond repair.

Other themes were: God’s perfect timing, forgiveness, identity in Christ, trusting God, and trusting others.

Since You’ve Been Gone is the culmination of the Restoring Heritage series but can be read as a stand-alone though there are subtle references to events that took place in earlier books.

Final Thoughts on the Restoring Heritage Trilogy

The characters in the series were well-written and it was good to see familiar characters in each of the books. I enjoyed the friendship between the characters and how open they were to letting new people into their circle.

There are some themes repeated throughout this series like the characters’ belief that their failures defined them. Like us, these characters had to realize that our failures can teach us valuable lessons about ourselves and God’s plan for our lives.

God’s timing is perfect and He had already accounted for our failures and disobedience. Nothing we do can surprise God and He uses all the events of our lives to draw us closer to Him and bring glory to His name.

I received an advanced reader’s copy from the publisher through the Revell Reads program; a positive review was not required. Purchase Since You’ve Been Gone on Amazon | Baker Books

Understanding God’s Timing

Let me be clear, there will be many times when you don’t understand God’s timing. It may seem as if He’s going too slow or He’s not moving at all.

It’s not until we’ve come through the situation that we understand in hindsight that it happened in the best possible time. My friend, don’t try to understand God’s timing or ask yourself if things are going to happen at the right time. Since they’re in God’s hands we know they’re going to happen at just the right time.

Instead of worrying or trying to second-guess God, pray. Spending time in His presence will remind you why you can trust Him.