I have a mantle clock. It's quite old. It needs winding about once a week. Because it chimes the hour, re-setting it is a pain if I forget to wind it and it stops, because I would have to allow all the chimes to cycle. So, when it stops, I wind up the two springs, but it doesn't start by itself. One little bump will send it into motion. So, I wait. 9:43. 10:34. 11:15. When the day gets to the right time, I give it a bump, and away it goes, telling the right time.

This time, I was waiting for 9:30 to come. I was busy as I waited, washing dishes, tidying up, checking emails. Then, it was time. Bump. And I thought about God — and the right time. At the right time, in His grand scheme, things will happen — not in my time. Sometimes, I try to hurry God along, and it doesn't work very well. Everything is wrong, out of sync, mixed up, like my clock chiming at the wrong hour. Here's what King David wrote:

Psalm 27:14 – Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord! (NKJV)

It takes patience to wait: eyes and hearts to know when to move in God's plan, and when to rest in our "tents". The Israelites left Egypt in God's time. They would have liked to have left a lot sooner. When they went on their journey, they found that it wasn't a straight line. The pillar of cloud showed them what to do:

Numbers 9:18 – At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped. (NKJV)

"Chronos" and "kairos" are two Greek words for time. The first one means clock time. The second one means the right time. Paul wrote:

Galatians 4:4 – But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. (NKJV)

God has a time. It is the right time. May we all have ears to hear and eyes to see God's timing.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we don't want to live just in "chronos" — time and space. We want to live in "kairos" — to know Your timing — when to speak, when to listen, when to act, and daily, hour by hour, to walk in Your Spirit. Then, we will always be in step with You and always be "on time". Amen.

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About the author:

Nan St. Louis <nanstlouis1@gmail.com>
Durham, Ontario, Canada
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