What Can We Do When God's Timing Doesn't Make Sense

Welcome/Obit

This has been a difficult week....so its good that we gather to encourage one another in the Lord.

Obit reading

Tiffany Ann (Villiard) Toan, 46, of Summers, AR, left to be with her Lord and Savior November 26, 2023. She was born May 23, 1977, in Detroit Lakes, MN, to Merlyn and Dee Villiard. In 1994, she moved with her family to Siloam Springs, AR. It was her senior year of high school, so she wasn’t too thrilled, but then she met the love of her life, her high school sweetheart, Fred “Junior” Toan. They would then go on to get married on March 16, 1996, at Harvard Avenue Baptist Church. Tiffany left behind a legacy of living life to the fullest. She would do anything for her family and was always a phone call away. She always had some project going. Whether it was simply painting her own house or completely renovating a house for her kids. Tiffany was a hard worker on and off the farm, and she loved a clean house. But, most importantly, she loved her family endlessly and especially loved being “Grandma”. She loved to watch her grandkids and take them on the tractor or four-wheeler. Tiffany held strong to her faith and always reminded her family to follow God, not their hearts. She was a long-time member of Covenant Church in Siloam Springs, AR. Tiffany was preceded in death by her grandparents, Elizabeth and Paul Zimpher Sr., and Rome and Mabel Villiard. She was also preceded in death by one granddaughter, Abigail Grace Robinson. Tiffany is survived by her husband, Fred Toan Jr., of the home; three daughters, Victoria Robinson and husband Nate of Siloam Springs, AR, Elizabeth Fleig and husband Seth of Watts, OK, and Hallie Burden and husband Col of Summers, AR. She is also survived by her parents, Merlyn and Dee Villiard of Summers, AR; one sister, Tammy Engle and husband John of Siloam Springs, AR; one nephew, Luke Engle and wife Blake of Siloam Springs, AR. She is also survived by two grandchildren, whom she loved fiercely, Henry and Natalie Robinson of Siloam Springs, AR.

Ive always had a hesitation about speaking of those who have died in the past tense. Tiffany isnt on earth, but that doesnt meant that she doesnt exist. She trusted in Christ on Earth and so we know she is with him in heaven.

John 11:25 ESV

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

Message: Guidance from God’s Word on How Respond When God’s Timing Doesn’t Make Sense to Us

Sometimes we are able to prepare for the death of someone precious to us and other times, like with Tiffany’s death, we are shocked and unprepared.

Our hearts naturally long to know why, and our hearts cry out to the lord to know his reasoning. Sometimes, God reveals some of his purposes in due season. Most of the time we will never know the answer to the “why” question on this side of eternity.

The more helpful question for our souls is not why, but what? What are we supposed to do when we don’t understand God’s plan? What are we supposed to do when God’s timing doesn’t make any sense?

1. Cry out the Lord continually in prayer. - Psalm 86 is a model prayer of Lament for deliverance

Psalm 86 ESV

A Prayer of David. 1 Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2 Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God. 3 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. 4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. 6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. 7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me. 8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. 9 All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. 10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. 14 O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. 15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant. 17 Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

2. Cling Tenaciously to the Sovereignty of God

This is so important because as Christians we believe that even though we don’t understand, we know that God has a purpose in all things.

We can live with the idea that everything is random and meaningless or we can trust that God has a purpose in our suffering.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (ESV)

Ecclesiastes 3:1–11 ESV

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. 9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Matthew Henry wrote on this passage a beautiful truth, “Though we see not the complete beauty of Providence, yet we shall see it, and a glorious sight it will be, when the mystery of God shall be finished. Then every thing shall appear to have been done in the most proper time and it will be the wonder of eternity.”

3. Keep Living with All Your Might

Ecclesiastes 3:12–13 ESV

12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

4. Resolve to Love One Another with the Love of Christ.

The reason we grieve so deeply is because we have loved deeply…so one of the best responses to in our grief is to love.

The Greatest Love of all is the Love of Christ

John 15:13 “13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Romans 5:8 “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

We are called to love one another with his love.

1 Corinthians 13 ESV

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I know Tiffany loved this passage, and we can know for certain she understands God’s love more than we could ever imagine.

One of her legacies is her love for her family and friends - so I hope she is saying Amen from heaven that we ought to resolve to love one another more deeply with the love of Christ.