At Just the Right Time

 “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.”                                                             (Romans 5:6, NLT)

“He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.” (1 Timothy 2:6, NLT)

“And now at just the right time he has revealed this message, which we announce to everyone. It is by the command of God our Savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him.” (Titus 1:3, NLT)

I like the way it is written in The Message:

“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway.” (Romans 5:6, The Message)

Reading through the entire Bible it seems as though there were many times that would have been perfect for Jesus to come; many times when the people of Israel were being terribly oppressed and could have used a saviour. But God sees the big picture. It is the same with his second coming; the time when Christ will come and rescue his people from this broken world and take us to be with him forever. Now seems like a good time. I’m sure WW2 seemed like a good time for many. The height of the American Civil War another. Throughout the centuries there have been many times the world could have used a rescuer. What is he waiting for?!

When Jesus doesn’t operate according to my expectations, do I respond in offense or excitement in the mystery? Do I try to make things happen on my schedule and in my way or can I wait for him to act? Dare I answer that honestly?

My husband and I have many ‘at just the right time’ stories to tell. Allow me to share a few from the last 2 years.

At just the right time God brought a ministry opportunity to my husband and me. We had just spent the last of a significant inheritance, that had paid our expenses after his EI ran out, when he received his first paycheque. The journey from application to acceptance seemed to take forever. I thought June would have been a great time to start the new ministry. For some reason that was not the best time from God’s perspective. September 1, 2019 was Tom’s first day in his new position.

At just the right time God made a way for our lawyer to get us out of a bad house deal. We viewed many homes and came to settle on one we felt would be a great fit for us. But once we signed the papers things began to fall apart. The closer the closing date came the more we knew this was not the right house for us. The deal did not collapse until the moment before we were to get the keys.

At just the right time God provided a rental home for us to move into. With the house deal collapsing, we had no where to live long term. Now what? The movers had already booked time off to come and help us. A friend had a brother-in-law whose late-mother’s place was vacant. We did not have to change the moving date, only the destination. Rather than move our stuff into the house we thought we were buying, they could now move our belongings into the condo. When we first viewed the place on-line (a few months prior), I thought it would not suit our needs; I could not envision living in a fishbowl in the middle of town. However, the condo was God’s gift of grace from the beginning. Because it was downtown, I walked everywhere: to the church, the grocery store, the park. The journey of getting to know the culture and people of our town was expedited because I was physically present, meeting people face to face rather than from my car window.

At just the right time God moved the hearts of people to drop ‘a little something’ in our mailbox that helped pay our extra living expenses of paying on two homes at once, or pay for emergency repairs to home and vehicle.

At just the right time God brought to us words of encouragement through his Word and through friends and family.

At just the right time God allowed the COVID-19 pandemic to hit our world. It changed the way we did ministry and opened opportunities we would never have had otherwise. My husband’s sermon series fit perfectly into the life of our church family as well as our personal journey. It would be a great series anytime, but it fit perfectly right now, here, in this place. God knew this back in November when he laid it on Tom’s heart to preach through the book of Nehemiah in the new year.

At just the right time God altered our holidays so we would experience his presence in new and profound ways. It did not seem like a good idea at the time. We had planned what we thought would be the perfect holiday, but rain, rain, and more rain forced us to alter our plans. What we experienced was even greater rest, rejuvenation, and intimacy than we would’ve had with what we had planned.

At just the right time God finally sold our house! On July 17, 2020 we were offered our asking price for our home which had been on the market for two years. Had the Lord told me when we first put it up for sale that it would take two years, I think I would have given up hope. There was no possible way we could manage a mortgage in the circumstances we found ourselves. Turns out God didn’t need me to manage anything, he just needed my cooperation, my trust, my resting in him. If he had sold our house back in the summer of 2018 we would have missed out on all kinds of miraculous provision, demonstrations of God’s love and faithfulness to us, a coming to the end of ourselves and clinging to Jesus only.

Our mortgage was due to be rewritten on August 16, 2020. Possession date was set for August 14, 2020! Down.To.The.Wire. But at just the right time.

At just the right time God put a house on the market that was perfect for us. We had already selected 5 we wanted to look at but 2 days before our ‘tour of homes’, a friend heard about a house that was coming onto the market on the weekend but was not yet listed. We got permission to add it to our tour. As soon as we walked into the front entrance, we knew this was the place God had been preparing for us. We had money in the bank from the sale of our house so we could put in an offer immediately.

At just the right time my sister and I went on a road trip to visit our mom. For months we had a sense that we needed to go see her but the ‘rona’ (a nickname for COVID-19) prevented us from going earlier. This was not the best week for me as we were neck deep in a plethora of paperwork required in buying a home, but God pulled it off. During the week of our visit our mom received an exceedingly difficult diagnosis. ‘Cancer’ is a word no one ever wants to hear. We ‘just happened’ to be with her when she received her test results. God knew she would need us and arranged our schedules so we could both be there with her, at just the right time.

I am so glad I am not in charge but that I can depend on God to know the when, where, how, etc. He is so, so good. He has lavished his love, grace, mercy, and provision on us. I am in awe. Our circumstances are not a treatise on whether God is good or not. He is good. Period. We just need eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand that even when things don’t happen in the way or time we expect, we are still deeply loved. Embrace the adventure because at just the right time God will reveal his plan, and his plan is always good.