Before I started teaching high school students I designed web applications. In my experience, the success of a project depends on a few key factors all coming together: a worthy idea, a dedicated team, sufficient financing, and proper timing. If any one of them is lacking the project usually suffers. In this week’s note I’d like to single out timing. In software development like many disciplines, you may have produced an excellent app, but if it is introduced too late to market it might not be able to compete against established products or services. Likewise, if the app is too early and people aren’t ready for what it offers, it will be hard to gain customers.
Timing is important in others parts of life also, especially spiritually. Yet in contrast to market timing, spiritual timing is rarely too late and never too early. Specifically I’m talking about God’s timing and the timing of our response to him. God does everything perfectly. Therefore, when he acts his timing is perfect (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:30). Unlike God, broken people don’t have perfect timing. Yet when we put our hope in God it is always the right time. I encourage you to get into the habit of listening to God and following through in faith. When you do it won’t be too late or too early.
There’s Still Hope
You may be tardy, but you aren’t too late to hope in God. He is merciful and accepts all who turn to him, even if they have foolishly resisted his call in the past. With that said, the longer you wait the harder it is to hear God’s voice. Also, bear in mind that there will come a day when Jesus returns and judges all unbelievers. Then it will be too late to accept God’s offer of redemption. Today will you consider trusting Jesus to save you and then follow his lead in living rightly?
Act on Evidence Without Delay
It’s not too early to hope in God. Some people put off turning to God because they have questions or doubts, they are hurt or afraid, or they have seemingly more important interests. If one of these excuses is holding you back, God understands. But he loves you too much to let you hide behind that excuse without reaching out to help you through it.
Here is what I have found to be true. Everyone places their hope in something or someone. Yet plans get interrupted, you fail, dreams get crushed, people disappoint, and disaster strikes. In divine contrast, God always delivers. When your hope is in him, his reality becomes your reality which includes what is good, right, loving, and beautiful because he is the source of those. Apart from God you will brush up against his grace in this world, but you won’t experience the fullness of his glory. Only by hoping in him through Jesus do you become his child and receive his abundant, everlasting life now and forever.
What keeps you from hoping in God? If you have questions or doubts, that’s okay. Hope is not needed if everything is already known. Hope is the certainty that everything will be known and will be worked out based on evidence you already have. God has given you evidence to hope in him. Two quick examples are creation and the death and resurrection of Jesus. God has proven he is almighty, sovereign, and loving. He created and sustains every living, inanimate, and unseen aspect of the entire universe from the subatomic particles to vast clusters of galaxies. Furthermore he gave his son, Jesus, to die and rise again to save you from your wrongdoing and to enable you to triumph over sin and death as his child. Therefore, God alone can make all known and can work everything out. It’s okay not to know the answers or the future, if you know the one who is the answer and who holds the future. So bring your questions and doubts to God. He welcomes them. Jesus taught, “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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
If you have been hurt by religious people or you blame God for not doing something your way and in your time, confess that to God and let him clarify his perspective and heal you as only he can. He promises to bring all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
Perhaps you just want to have fun, live life your way, and keep your options open. Then you plan to turn to God when you are older. I advise you to reevaluate that position for three reasons. First, you don’t know how many days you have left. Second, you don’t know if you will hear God calling later. Third, you are deceived to think that life on your own is better than life with God. It’s not. You will miss his unsurpassed life for you now. That’s why the first commandment is to love God more than anything or anyone else (Matthew 22:36-40; Exodus 20:3). He didn’t say this for his benefit, but for yours. God created you and he loves you. He knows that the best life for you is to be with him, to be like him, and to do what he does. So he is calling you to himself and he sacrificed everything in Jesus to make life with him possible (John 3:16-21; Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21). If your obstacle is doubt, hurt, fear, or self-fulfillment, don’t continue to let them delay you in turning to God. It’s not too early to place your hope in God and receive his life for you.
Conclusion
It’s not too late to hope in God, he promises to forgive you and adopt you as his child (1 John 1:9; John 1:12). Also it is not too early to turn to God—he is calling you now to his best life. Don’t miss another day with him by putting it off. You can experience new, abundant everlasting life today by confessing your wrongdoing and asking God to show you how to live rightly. Then by his grace and power do what he shows you. Keep in mind, that until Jesus returns, you will still face difficulty in this fallen world of broken people, but with God you can have glorious hope. The apostle Paul wrote of this truth, “Therefore, since we [anyone who believes] have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:1-5). So run to God’s open arms, let him resolve any issues and disarm any hindrance to your faith. Hope in him today for your brightest future.