We all know what its like to stress about something that you can do absolutely nothing about, and then at the 11th hour, the phone rings and that one conversation sets everything right. Not always, but mostly hey? Especially when we have prayed about it and have completely trusted God to intervene.
But why does He always leave it to the 11th hour. The answer, I think, is that in God’s economy, there isn’t an 11th hour. I think that there is trusting for a miracle and then seeing a miracle, and that time in-between, when we feel most anxious, just before crunch time, is what we call the 11th hour.
This week, I was reading the parable in Matthew about ‘The Rich Young Man’.
The Rich Young Man
16 Once a man came to Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me concerning what is good?” answered Jesus. “There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life.”
18 “What commandments?” he asked.
Jesus answered, “Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; 19 respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
20 “I have obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else do I need to do?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.
23 Jesus then said to his disciples, “I assure you: it will be very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of heaven. 24 I repeat: it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were completely amazed. “Who, then, can be saved?” they asked.
26 Jesus looked straight at them and answered, “This is impossible for human beings,
The thing that struck me the most about this passage, is that common sense is turned on it’s head. What the world says and expects is completely opposite to what the Lord says and expects. The world says “we must work hard and get rich and accumulate many possessions.” But God says “I will provide for all you needs. Trust in me.”
So how does this relate to the 11th hour? Why do things only seem to come through for us when we are about to reach our whitts end.
Could it be that God always has the whole situation under control – it is just our human nature to fret. God’s time is infinitive and his timing is always perfect. We are the ones that put parameters in place. We pray for things to happen within a certain time and we feel let down when it doesn’t happen. But what if we are praying for and hoping for something that is not part of God’s plan for us at all.
We may only discover this much further down the line, when we receive a blessing that is way beyond our wildest dreams.
I believe the key is that when we are feeling so extremely stressed, and we are trusting and praying for God to intervene, we need to take our eyes off the things of the world and put on our ‘Kingdom glasses’ so that we can see things from His perspective.
This is how we will find peace and hope and understanding. This is how we will live without anxiety but rather live with a peace that surpasses all ‘human understanding’.
For so many years now, I have dreamed of buying a farm or a small holding. As a family, we have put in an offer on so many properties that we believed were our ‘dream home’ and yet not one of them came to pass.
Sometimes I feel desperate and disappointed and start casting blame on others because my life has not turned out the way I imagined it to.
And this is when the Lord spoke to me about ‘Kingdom glasses’. I need to see things from God’s perspective. Because only when I see things from His perspective will I truly understand. And only when I truly understand, will I find purpose and fulfilment.
I asked my forum girls at our next meeting to pray and ask God to give me a word that I could I could use to help me keep perspective. Through our prayers, we came upon this analogy. As believers, we are on the Kingdom team – the ‘red’ team. And sometimes it may seem as if the other teams are winning, but the Kingdom team has the ultimate victory. God will always lead us, bless us and fight for us because we are on His team – the Kingdom team.
So everytime things seem to be working against us, we need to take our eyes off the world, put on our Kingdom glasses and align ourselves again with the Kingdom team. And that is when we see Gods hand move.
That is when we realise that there is always a God plan!
Maybe, you didn’t get that job because a colleague really needs you in your current job. Or maybe you didn’t get that house you so wanted because your income would be inconsistent for a period and the pressure would have been too much to bear.
And then …. at just the perfect time and in the most perfect way, a door opens and God ushers us through and we realise that what we now face is what we had dreamed for all along!
Only God knows.
So let us stay on that Kingdom team. Let us grab for those Kingdom glasses when things don’t seem to be working out.
Let us trust in God’s timing – which is always perfect.
No more 11th hour. Just Gods hour.