Faith, Doubt and God's Mysterious TimingSample

Things Line Up Beyond Our Scope

Time is viewed differently in retrospect. We get a glimpse of things that were happening that weren't in our view at the time. Like Paul, we might even see that what happened during seasons we didn’t choose had the greatest impact because of what God did with that time.

In Acts 16:7, we read that it was because Paul was derailed in his original plans, that he ended up starting the church of Philippi. This group ended up being some of Paul’s dearest friends- and they were the recipients of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, which has been used by God to transform millions of lives. Paul didn’t know that his letter to this church (along with his other prison letters) would one day form much of the New Testament and reach multiple generations. However, what he did know- partly based on his experience in Philippi- was that wherever he was sent, God had a plan for that time. In Philippians 1:12, Paul proclaims that God was using his prison sentence to advance the gospel because he saw that others were speaking up about the faith.

What Paul saw was the small picture of how God was using his imprisonment. What Paul couldn’t see was that his prison letters would end up becoming the farthest-reaching ministry of his life.

Paul’s story teaches us that time is never lost- the only thing we might lose is what we wanted to do with it. Paul could have seen all the time he spent in prison as a waste. But Paul believed God had him where he was for a reason—and he decided to write letters to encourage churches, since he was unable to see them face to face.

Paul teaches us to trust that God is in every circumstance, and what we can’t see now will one day add evidence to how God is working. It’s incredible to think that without Paul’s jail sentence, our Bibles might be very different from the ones we have. God uses circumstances we wouldn’t choose, to cause things to happen in the future that we can’t imagine. The passing of time opens our eyes to see more of what God did.

Time eventually reveals that God has a plan in all that happens to us- no matter how different our path may be from what we originally wanted. Time is our revealer, our teacher, and our encourager; and when we look back, God shows us what was happening that could not be seen. Like Paul, we can look at our circumstances and proclaim that what is happening right now is somehow serving to advance God’s purposes. And if we trust God the way Paul did, we will trust what’s happening- or not happening- and do what we can.

Takeaway: Are you in a season where you don’t see what God is doing? What would it look like to trust that God has a plan and do what you can in the circumstances you are in? Where do you need to take the focus off what is not happening and look at what is happening?