God’s Timing

God is the source of blessing and strength.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

-PSALM 46:1-2

I began to pray every day that I could make it through graduate school with no debt. The numbers were not in my favor. I had less than a thousand dollars when I began school, and it would cost over sixty thousand dollars to get my degree. God provided in many incredible ways. I had a tight budget, no car, and no phone at times. Beyond practical measures though, God provided.

At one point, there was a man in Oakland, California, who didn’t go to my church, but sensed through prayer that he was supposed to give a gift of several thousand dollars to a seminary student. My pastor called me up and told me that some unknown man in town just stopped by the church with a huge gift for a seminary student! I was the only seminary student in the church. It was just enough to pay my bills that month. Have you seen God provide for you in ways that are tremendously encouraging? And yes, God made a way so that my daily prayer was answered and I graduated with no debt. Another example of the sustaining grace of God!

As we study God’s timing in how He sustains us, there are two concepts for “time” in the Greek language. One sense of time, chronos, is linear; for example, there are seven days in a week.

Another aspect of time is kairos, meaning a significant God-ordained moment. God brings kairos at critical junctions in our lives. The grace of God will arrive in your life with His sense of timing. God knows what we need and when we need it.

Psalm 46 both acknowledges the trial that is experienced, and at the same time, gives tremendous hope. The very real presence of God and His ability to comfort and provide give the psalmist the courage to sing and praise God through difficulties. God is the source of blessing and strength, and God shows up in our darkest hours with incredible love and deliverance. It is in God’s grace that we find kairos.

Excerpt republished with permission from Rooted in Grace by Jesse Bradley c. 2012.