God's Appointed Time
It is in moments when we are despaired of all hope that we need to have it the more. In the moment we feel like God is far from us, He is actually working on our desperate cases. It is so wild of us to even start thinking that maybe God doesn't see our struggles, our pains, or even our sufferings. It might seem like we've been tested a lot beyond our own strength. It might feel like He's so quick to help other people—and mostly those who do not even pray—yet He's so sluggish to answer us who are always praying, fasting, and devoted to Him. Well, as the saying goes,
"We do not pray to change divine decree but only to obtain what God has decided will be obtained through prayer."
We do struggle mostly because our own desires and will blindfold our ability to see what God has prepared for us. It rings and continually sounds loudest in our minds that it deters us from heeding the voice of God that says, "Wait, it is not yet my time," just like at Cana. God tests our patience. It's never a guarantee that the test of patience will be for a short time; well, it can even be for 20 years. It's He who knows best. When life becomes so hard, patience and hope sound mythical. You're made to believe that they're merely words that can change or determine nothing based on your current state of struggle. But rest assured, at the appointed time, He will do it.
God never wishes for any one of us to struggle. He loves us so much that He doesn't want to see us in pain, but just like gold, it is hit and heated through over 1000°C of heat in the furnace. We too must undergo the test. Perhaps it's the closest God can keep us to Himself. When human beings are steadily progressing and they feel like all is going as planned, a little portion of complacency, a tendency to reduce the time we spend with our God, sprouts. But when we are challenged and tested, we can keep closely to His side.
To worsen the situation, the enemy doesn't sleep. He hatches up anonymous plans for us. He starts with corrupting our minds: "Perhaps you should desert God," "Perhaps He wants to see you suffering," "Perhaps He doesn't love you the way you do," "Perhaps you should stop praying, for so-and-so doesn't pray but he receives," "Perhaps God is deaf to your prayers," "Perhaps you're not special," "Perhaps God doesn't even exist"... and so much more tactics he uses to corrupt our minds. He brings us to the point where we start drawing comparisons with other people: So-and-so is successful; they don't even know God. I studied with that one; now he's more successful. You're getting old, you have no money, no job, no wife/husband, you're financially struggling, no tuition... Things like that. And he makes sure we lose out and feel outclassed in our comparisons. That's how cunning this little creature is.
Sometimes you even feel like giving up on prayers. You don't even seem to find the rightful words to use in prayer. Friends might try to encourage you, but you feel worthless. You spend time in church, before the Blessed Sacrament; you receive the sacraments, go to Masses, adorations, and yet you don't experience a breakthrough in your life. It raises a lot of questions and doubts in your mind, like "God, what haven't I done for You to open up pathways for me? Am I that bad?" A lot of questions arise in your mind, but Psalm 121 tells us: "I raise my eyes toward the mountains. From whence shall come my help? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:1–2 NABRE). We need to rely solely on Him.
Jeremiah 29:11 tells us of His plans for our lives: "For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope" (Jeremiah 29:11 NABRE). He tells us He knew us even before we were conceived in the womb: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you" (Jeremiah 1:5 NABRE). He called us by name and that we are His. The same applies where He says, if He can dress the flowers in the field, feed the birds in the sky who don't plough, "Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?" (Matthew 6:26 NABRE), then how much more will He provide for us who were made in His likeness?
He urges us to ask and we shall receive in Matthew 7:7–11: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:7–11 NABRE). He cannot give us stones instead of bread, a snake instead of fish, for He says He knows what's best for us. We do not ask because He doesn't know our needs, but He wants us to ask. He wants to hear us ask for our desires. He says at times we don't receive what we pray for because of our desires to satisfy our bodily desires. He desires our persistence in prayer. He desires our determination, patience, and attitude while praying. Just as in the prayer after the conclusion of the Divine Mercy, where He assures us hope when we're almost despaired of all hope, we need to cling to Him. We need to pray without growing weary. Our God is so loving, but He works in mysterious ways that we can't understand. It is when we are almost giving up that He's working best for us.
You might be calling for a certain job and deep inside you believe it's the only best job for you, and yet He has different ideas in mind for you. All we need to do is ask for His graces to help us keep patient, humble, and to heed His voice. We need to allow Him to teach us to observe and accept His will, just like Mary did at the Annunciation: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38 NABRE). May your will be done in me as you will, not as I desire...
In His perfect timing; God's appointed time everything aligns beautifully, as Scripture reminds us: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time; though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not delay" (Habakkuk 2:3). And "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Trust that when the moment arrives, it will speak, and it will not lie. Hold on, your breakthrough is coming in God's appointed time.
Lord Jesus, when I feel like I can no longer wait, when my patience runs out and when persistence in prayer is no longer present inside my soul, may you kindly remind me that your will surpasses my own will, that your plans for me are better than mine and may I be able to listen and to carefully heed to your "I will do at the appointed time" voice discernly, may you remind me of how long your people waited for the Messiah right from the fall of man to the Prophetess Anna and Prophet Simeon in the temple. We await for the Lord until we're shown mercy and favour. Jesus, I Trust In You! Amen.
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