God’s timing is always right. He’s never early or late. Everything He does happens at just the right time. God sets the schedule; sometimes we have to run to keep up, and other times we have to slow down in order to get in step with Him. Mary planned to marry Joseph, then probably have a child, but God had a different plan. The child had to be without inherited sin, so He needed a perfect Father; God. In human terms, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Mary became pregnant before she got married, and Joseph wasn’t the father. Besides being rejected by society, the law said she could be stoned to death. Sometimes things happen in our lives which seem all wrong. They don’t go the way we planned, and they might seem to make our lives more challenging. It’s in those times we need to respond like Mary did: ‘I am the Lord’s servant…May your word to me be fulfilled’ (Luke 1:38 NIV). Mary showed incredible faith by trusting God even though His plan wouldn’t have made sense to her. God has a plan, and He’s always working towards it. The trouble is, we’re only working with limited information, so we become impatient when He doesn’t answer our prayers when and how we think He should. The Bible tells us that ‘when the right time came, God sent his Son.’ Israel had been waiting for hundreds of years for the Messiah to come, but God knew the perfect time for Him to arrive. Sometimes we have to wait a long time to see how God’s been working in our lives. In the waiting and in the mystery, we need to put our trust in the One who is always on time. 

What Now?

Take some time to read Luke 1:26-38. Ask God to help you trust His timing in your life, just as Mary did.