God's Perfect Timing

Chuckle: "How come wrong numbers are never busy?"

Good Quote: "The way we pray shows how we live; the way we live shows how we pray." --William Arthur Ward

"For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2 NLT).

In chapter four, Paul described the events of Jesus return to remove His church (all believers) from the earth. Here in chapter five, he deals with the timing of our Lord's return. How and when Jesus Christ will return was an often asked question in Paul's time as it is now. Most of us live by the clock and are constantly looking at our watches and calendars as we anticipate our next church service, meeting, work assignment, or vacation. I must admit I am a stickler for things being done on time and according to plan.

When thinking about the return of our Lord, we must remember that we aren't God and we do not view time from His perspective. Of course God knows all about time. After all, He created it. But God's time-table is difficult for us to understand. For us to try to predict with certainty, the date for Christ's return is an exercise in futility and foolish. It is not for us to know these things. Jesus Said, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36 NIV). Evidently, the timing of Christ's return is a closely guarded secret even within the Godhead. All we know is that the event is certain to happen.

The key message from Paul's writings and the words of Jesus is that we cannot know when Christ will return, but we should be ready for Him to return at any moment. There's no way that God will adjust his time-table just to suit us. God's timing is always perfect and everything fits into His master plan for the universe, the earth, and His children. If we understood all about God's timing, we would be God.

Many have been made to look foolish by predicting exact dates for Christ's return. None of their predictions has been correct. Having said this, we do know from Scripture that many of the prophecies have been fulfilled that are prerequisites to our Lord's return, and this has led many of us to believe His return could be soon. But we just can't know for certain. As Christians, we should just trust God and His perfect timing, be ready, continue our work for Him, and listen for the trumpet call (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Love, Jerry & Dotse