Find Peace By Staying On God’s Timing & Planning For Your Life

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<God said to Joshua,> “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”’ (Joshua 1:9)

I am normally somewhat stoic and even-keel about events involving stressful situations that spring up unannounced. This is probably due to spending adulthood working in and with the US military and civilian agencies that dealt (and thrived) in chaos. Today, I fret more if I am placed on a schedule three or four months in advance to preach a sermon should the pastor take a well-deserved vacation than if he calls me on a Saturday morning to tell me I need to cover for him on Sunday due to an illness or injury that prevents him from assuming the pulpit.

It may be that I don’t have time to think about it. Working with US Central Command in the 2000’s after 9/11, almost everything was spur-of-the-moment. Planning that took months to find funding, resources and personnel before now was down to days, sometimes hours. Though this made stress, it never made me anxious in anticipation. Instead, it was quickly think of a plan to move forward, execute that plan immediately, and adjust accordingly to accomplish the required task.

That was comfortable for me as I trusted the Lord’s gift for success, or for His ability to provide a solution to correct or adjust actions to ensure success. However, by 2009 I moved up in my company and out of Central Command into the corporate offices, then later over to Special Operations Command as a part of the management team there before becoming a program support specialist in writing new proposals and setting up new programs.

The program support specialist role was a ‘work from home’ role (with the exception of a six-month period of needing to be ‘on-site’ as US Southern Command in Miami in 2021). It was not stressful work (and no more long daily commute on I-75) but it often made me anxious as the pace was slower and back to the months-long planning. Like the preaching, the longer the wait was to execute the longer I have to think (and that can be dangerous).

I realized I was approaching retirement, and so my plan was retire as soon as I thought I was able to afford it. I originally thought of retiring in 2023, with the original plan to retire at 60. After being asked to assist in a proposal and a couple of projects I had a conflict. Do I stay on my own schedule, or do I stay for that extra year? Both choices gave me anxiety, and could I live with making one choice or the other, and not regret it? The thought of having a regret (which I thankfully have very few of) gave me even more anxiety.

I prayed over what was God’s plan for me and after that anxiousness went away and I agreed to stay one more year, and now I’m one year retired and better for postponing it for that one year. The Lord provides me peace in both my decision to stay that extra year and the time to retire was perfect for us.

God’s timing is always perfect as it follows His perfect planning. If we follow His timing and planning, there is no reason for us to be anxious as the results are perfect. We may have to accept that it may not be in our eyes what we want, but it is, upon realization, what we need. As an example, God told Joshua this before the Hebrews crossed the Jordan River into Canaan to go and take over the Promised Land.

The Hebrews had wandered in the wilderness/desert for 40 years; the Hebrews’ timing was likely something like ‘let’s leave Egypt, cruise across the Sinai on the interstate and we can reach Jericho in a day-and-a-half, and then go hit the beach’.  God, however, had other plans; the Hebrews had to go through struggles, go through tribulations, get the Commandments and the Law, on God’s timing and on God’s terms to learn how to live and think in Godly ways. 

We often struggle with accepting God’s timing on things.  I often think of lingering issues that I can’t find time or resources to resolve.  The lack of rain has me anxious (since we are on well water, I pray the aquafer isn’t drying up).  But I continually remind myself when I start down these paths that the Lord is in control, and that His timing is perfect in all things and that often calms me as I find peace and comfort in the Lord.

No matter the circumstance, we should run with God’s plan, not our own.  In all our lives, we must remember that the Lord is running the show, and He has good reasons on how things play out.  No rain now?  Maybe less mosquitoes this summer.  Not retiring on my timing?  Today I still have medical insurance through my former employer now until the end of this year, which times perfectly for my spouse’s start of Medicare coverage. The longer I drew a paycheck the longer the investments grew to better ensure a retirement with less financial woes, and a lesser gap between retirement and Social Security/Medicare.  Patience in allowing God’s plan to work itself out is the key.

We live in an instant gratification society that while convenient has causing us to lose the patience to wait.  We want everything to speed to the point of ‘now’.  The comedian Steven Wright once stated, ‘if you put instant coffee in a microwave, you can go back in time.’  People want that kind of response.  We may want that, and at this moment, but we then find we aren’t ready for it. 

We buy now but find we must pay later – and sometimes the payment of debt causes us to go deeper in debt to buy necessities now to pay for previous wants.   We may need to be prepared better for certain things, or if we take the time to think instead of acting on impulse we realize our original want is not something we need.

Rely on God’s timing for all things; for Godly things we must have patience to wait for God’s timing to ensure we get the best outcome!