My devotional: Not yet my time

Not yet my time

Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee. 10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. John 7:6-10

Sitting there, despondently looking at my certificates qualifications, tick. Experience - perfect match. Requirements - satisfactory. With each successive week, month and year that has passed, I have perfected the language, style and look of papers I presented, proposals written, or resumes sent out at the click of the send button. Yet the return on invested time and efforts has been regrets. When will my time come? I ask my self.

He was anointed king at an early age, having been overlooked by his father and siblings. He continued doing what he knew best; to tend his father’s sheep. One of King Saul’s attendants had taken notice of David even as a shepherd boy. When an evil spirit tormented Saul, the attendants advised him to have someone who could play the lyre for him to make him feel better.

Following this counsel, one of the King Saul’s attendants remembered David saying “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.” David soon went into the king’s service and this perhaps may have motivated him to know that his time to be king drew nigh.

However, this was not to be. Several years later, this same king on several occasions tried to kill David making him spend many years on the run yet careful enough not to touch, or harm the Lord’s anointed when he had the opportunity. It was not yet his time.

As Joseph languished in the prison cells for a crime he did not commit, he may have wondered, when will my time come? What had become of his dream? It was not yet his time. And that did not make him grow bitter, but better at his administrative skills even in prison.

Two years later, after correctly interpreting the cupbearer’s dream, Joseph’s own dream began to unravel before his very eyes as he stood before the Pharoah to interpret his weird dream. The advice he gave the Pharaoh on what he needs to do became the key that unlocked the fulfilment of his dream several years earlier.

Jesus Christ, knew his mission well and right time for Him to die for all mankind. Knowing the motives of the Jewish leaders to kill him at a time when he was supposed to attend the Festival of Tabernacles, he categorically refused to go.

Though his brothers urged him He said no, His time had not yet come. Though He later went to the festival secretly and even publicly taught in the temple courts. The Jewish leaders tried to seize Him, but John 7:30b says “but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.”

Jesus portrayed utmost wisdom and maturity in surrender to God’s will and timing. He knew His mission and purpose here on earth and though His goal and experiences were not pleasant, He had to wait until the right time. When the time came, for his purpose to be fulfilled, He prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” He submitted even to the most painful and humiliating experience ever. But it had to be done in accordance with God’s will.

Moses prayed in Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom”. Do you have a well articulated mission and vision like I have and are wondering, when will my time? Like Jesus, may we have godly wisdom and maturity to say, not yet my time. May we be filled with the Holy Spirit and have self control and patience knowing that “it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13