God's Timing Is Always Right

Intro

What are your favorite things about Christmas?

What are your favorite traditions?

There's so much to love about Christmas and it’s supposed to be a time of joy and cheer, but it's not always easy to feel festive this time of year.

Maybe so much family time reminds you your family isn't perfect.

Maybe it's the first Christmas you'll experience without a loved one who used to always be there.

Maybe something has shifted in your friend group, and you don't know who you'll spend Christmas break with this year.

When Christmas time doesn't exactly feel like "the most wonderful time of the year," we might wonder:

If God's timing is a little wrong.

If God knows (or cares) what's going on with us.

If God can be trusted to come through for us.

Let’s look at the story leading to the first Christmas in which someone may not have been in the best of spirits.

In Luke 1, we meet a priest named Zechariah, who gets an incredible message from an angel: after many years of trying to have a baby, he and his wife Elizabeth are finally going to have a child.

The angel tells them their child will play an important role in announcing the coming of Jesus, Savior of the world. But after so many years of disappointment, Zechariah has a hard time believing it could be true.

As you listen to this story, imagine what it might be like to be Zechariah — a guy who committed his whole life to obeying God, but was still waiting for God to give him the child he so desperately wanted.

Read Luke 1:8-24

Zechariah was chosen to go into the temple by "casting lots." This is kind of like the ancient version of rolling dice.

In other words, Zechariah probably looked at the scheduling of this priestly work shift as random — nothing special or out of the ordinary.

But God decided this was the day to introduce Zechariah to a bigger story. On this day, Zechariah's "random" appointment was no accident at all — it was time for a greater purpose to be made known.

When the angel Gabriel, told Zechariah he was going to have a son, it probably seemed too good to be true. For Zechariah and Elizabeth, not having a child of their own was difficult.

In those days, if women couldn't get pregnant, they often wondered if they had done something to deserve God's punishment. This might seem strange to us today, but in that time and culture, men and women both sometimes had their characters questioned when they couldn't get pregnant.

Of course, Zechariah and Elizabeth's inability to have a baby didn't have anything to do with their character or supposed sins. But by the time the angel told Zechariah they would finally have a baby, it seemed like God's timing was too late.

At this point, both Zechariah and Elizabeth were pretty old — too old to have a child . . . right?

The angel promised their child would play an important role in announcing the coming of Jesus, Savior of the world. But after so many years of disappointment, Zechariah had a hard time believing it could be true.

Zechariah's struggle to believe God probably wasn't because he was rebellious or intentionally distrustful of God. When you've spent so much time being disappointed, it makes sense if you temporarily forget how to feel hopeful.

When we look at how Zechariah responded to the angel Gabriel, it's clear Zechariah thought it was too late. He needed Gabriel's reminder that his circumstances weren't random — God was indeed working!

Of course, God did exactly what the angel promised God would do. Elizabeth became pregnant a baby who would one day grow up to become John the Baptist — the guy who would help prepare the world to hear Jesus' message. God wasn't too late. For Zechariah, Elizabeth, and the whole world, God was right on time.

If it feels like God's timing is off, or your prayers aren't being heard, or it's too late for God to come through.

Read Proverbs 3:5-6

In life, we won't always understand (or like) God's timing.

We'll sometimes want our prayers answered faster, more often, or differently than God decides to answer them.

We'll sometimes be more confident in our own understanding than God's understanding.

We'll sometimes want to follow our own paths or timelines instead of waiting for God's timing.

If you, like Zechariah, are struggling to trust what God is up to, I hope you'll remember how God came through for Zechariah and Elizabeth at the perfect time.

Because what was true for them is true for you: God's timing is always right.

Response

It's always difficult when things don't work out like we wanted or planned. But while we wait for God's timing, there is always something we can do to grow our trust in God while we wait.

PRAY WHILE YOU WAIT: Like you just practiced, keep talking to God about the thing you're waiting for. You might not always feel capable of confidently saying you trust God, but that's okay. God wants your honest prayers — even if that means saying, "God, I don't know what you're doing and it's not easy to trust you today." Just keep talking.

REMEMBER WHILE YOU WAIT: How has God come through for you in the past? Can you think of any prayers that were answered or moments when God felt present? Make a list on paper, on your phone, or even on social media, because remembering how God has been trustworthy in the past makes it so much easier to believe God is still trustworthy today.

SERVE WHILE YOU WAIT: After so many years of waiting, Zechariah finally got his answer from God while he was busy serving in the temple. Sometimes when we're frustrated by waiting for God to meet our needs, the best thing we can do is shift our focus to someone else and their needs. Sometimes that's exactly when God will speak most clearly.