daily devotional

When the time is right, God will make it happen.

So, when will the time be right already? If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting on something. Waiting for that shift, waiting for that breakthrough, waiting to see the good God is going to do from the harm the enemy intended. But maybe right now, you’re just not seeing it.

It must not be time.

This can make us feel like our entire lives are just a big holding pattern. We’re waiting and waiting, wishing and wondering, and eventually we start dismissing ourselves from the promises of God. I guess I’m not chosen after all. I guess I must not be good enough. It will never happen for me.

But Isaiah 60:22 God says “At the right time I, the Lord, will make it happen.”

Who am I to argue with that? If he says he will make it happen at the right time, then I believe HE WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN AT THE RIGHT TIME.

The 60th chapter of Isaiah is God speaking to Jerusalem about their future glory. He’s fully acknowledging the state of disaster and the darkness of their days, but he’s reminding them of what he is doing and what is to come. Sure your land has seen no progress, but success is coming! Yes everyone has left, but wow wait until I bring them back! You may have been torn down, but I’m about to rebuild you. You have been looked down on, but I’m going to shine down on you with my glory, and the world will now look to you.

God knows what he’s doing. Verse 10 says “I will now have mercy on you through my grace.” I will NOW have mercy on you through my grace. The time is NOW. And when the time is NOW, God will make it happen.

Your hard times have prepared you for this time … this time where things are about to change. I know you wish you would have never had to go through this time, but the truth is God doesn’t always remove the obstacles, he empowers us to go right through them.

He could have completely evaporated the Red Sea for the Israelites’ journey to freedom. He could have said “sea, be no more” and no doubt, it would have been gone. But he didn’t. What did God do?

HE MADE A WAY THROUGH IT.

When did he do it?

WHEN THE TIME WAS RIGHT.

The Israelites faced sure death by the Egyptians chasing after them, or sure death drowning in the sea in front of them. And this is exactly when God said the time was right. That darned if you do and darned if you don’t moment. That hemmed in with nowhere else to go moment. That hopelessly stuck moment.

AND THIS IS GOD’S DIVINE TIMING.

And the funny thing about the timing is, God sure seems to wait until the breaking point, doesn’t he? He allows the delay. He allows the dilemma. He allows the destruction. He allows the desperation.

Why? So we don’t miss the deity of his deliverance.

DON’T MISS YOUR DESTINY BECAUSE OF THE DISASTER ON THE WAY.

God is bigger than your disaster. He is bigger than anything standing in your way. He is more powerful. He is greater. He is the Almighty, and he’s working for you.

Don’t you understand that? HE IS WORKING FOR YOU. He is working to make a way for you. A way right through this disaster. And the way, His way, will allow you to taste defeat. It will force you to dig deep to depths you never knew existed within you. There’s only one way you discover the power and strength he has put in you, and it ain’t the easy way.

When you’re standing at your Red Sea, when you’ve come to the end of all you can do, this is when THE TIME IS RIGHT. When the time is right, you will walk right through. When the time is right, your obstacle will stand on it’s end and allow you to pass. When the time is right, you will be given exactly what you need to proceed.

But until then, it will just look like a dead end. Until then, it will look impossible. And it will be impossible … until the time is right.

What have you been waiting on? What obstacle has been in your way? What is it ahead of you that makes a problem of your progress, a stumble for your success, a barrier to your breakthrough?

And what will you do about it?

Will you back down just because you know it’s ahead? Will you surrender to defeat? Will you return to the captivity of your past? Will you settle here … or will you dare to show up and see what God will do here?

What could God do here? Here, where nothing seems to work. Here, where every person in their right mind would tell you THIS ISN’T HAPPENING. Here, where the obstacle in your way will literally swallow you up and drown you.

Let me tell you what God could do here … HE COULD DO THE IMPOSSIBLE AND HE COULD DO IT FOR YOU!

Why would he do it? So you will know. You will know how powerful he is and how loved you are.

Maybe until now you haven’t really known the extent of his power. Maybe until now you haven’t really known the depth of his love for you. YOU’RE ABOUT TO!

Isaiah 60:16 says “You will know at last that I, the Lord, am your savior and your redeemer.”

How would we ever know God as our savior and redeemer without the need to be saved and redeemed? I can tell you the fresh oysters we harvested right out of the Chespeake Bay this weekend were delicious, but you won’t know just how delicious they were without tasting them. I can show you photos of last night’s sunset in the bay, but you would never know it’s beauty without standing here beside me and seeing it with your own eyes.

The same is true with being saved and redeemed. In theory it sounds nice … but the true power of our God and the touch of his love is unknown until you yourself have been saved from something you so desperately need to be saved from. Until you yourself have been redeemed from that which you were defeated by.

This is why he has allowed your struggle. This is the purpose of the delay. This is the design of your impossible, so you would know for yourself. I mean know it on a personal level, not hear about it from someone else.

Your impossible serves as the gateway to knowing his power. Your hardship is the invitation for his mighty hand. Your “Red Sea”, your impassable stopping point standing between where you are and where you want to be, well this is exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Your journey has led you here. Here to this place of coming face to face with impossible odds and looming defeat. This place where you’re met with the power of God to take you right through this obstacle, right through this hardship, right through this struggle.

AND YOU’RE RIGHT ON TIME.

No, God didn’t evaporate the Red Sea for the Israelites to continue their journey to freedom. He parted it. He made a way through it. He stood the sea up on it’s end and made a way where there had been no way. BUT THEY STILL HAD TO DO THE WALKING.

You’re right where you’re supposed to be, right when you’re supposed to be here, it’s all by great design. NOW WALK ON SISTER.

Dare to leave the shores and just see what God will do. Dare to believe the one who is all-knowing knows you and knows the way for you.

And believe with every ounce of you “At the right time God will make it happen.”