The Fullness of Time

By Scott Presson
Guest Writer

CBN.com - Do you worry about not doing God’s will? Do you fret about actually doing God’s will?

Sometimes we do know God’s will, but we really don’t trust Him enough to want it implemented in our lives. We worry so much about not doing His will that we’re afraid to make any move at all!

On the other hand, we really don’t know God’s will and again, we become fearful of making the wrong move, so we make no move at all.

These thought processes are different, and yet they yield the same result. They are actually rooted in the same ground. Both are based on a lack of trust in God.

We can’t go back, and we’re afraid to go forward. Never mind moving to the left or right. The devil has us right where he wants us. We’re hemmed in by doubt and unbelief.

The devil knows when he has a Christian immobilized. Isolated and against the ropes, he has effectively stopped our walk with God. We don’t trust God, and yet we know we can’t lean on our own understanding either. The Word says when we are double-minded, we are unstable in all of our ways.

Many of us refuse to walk by faith even though we know that’s the only way out of our predicament. We begin to lack the assurance that we are His children, and that Satan will not harm us. We grow fearful that God will penalize us for not doing His will, and we are fearful that we will never get to see our dreams fulfilled.

But God always has a plan!! He has a plan for you and I. He promises that He will not harm us, and He has a plan that will give us the desires of our hearts'.

A major element of God’s plan is waiting. Patience is always part of the foundation of God’s plan. There is a fullness of time that has to happen before the desires of our hearts' are fulfilled.

Why? Look at the Word.

Ecclesiastes 3:1(NLT) says,

"There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven."

There is a fullness of time that according to God, has a beginning, and then a point of implementation, followed by an end. This verse says there is a time and a season for everything under heaven. Everything means everything.

Look at Abraham and Sarah. They had a promise from God. God told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. God told Abraham He would give him millions of descendants who would represent many nations. Some would even be Kings!

In the natural they were old, but God had a plan. He planted the desire to have a child within Abraham and Sarah. Time went by. They doubted it would ever happen.

God was developing character and patience in their lives. God was instilling endurance and trust in His will. God was teaching this couple to walk by faith and not by sight.

God was using time as one of His tools to bring about His will. They did try to force God’s will. Sarah offered her servant Hagar to Abraham, but God looked past their step in the wrong direction. He blessed that child also, and His promise was eventually fulfilled.

Genesis 21: 1-2 (NLT) says,

"Then the Lord did exactly what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant, and she gave a son to Abraham in his old age. It all happened at the time God had said it would."

“It all happened at the time God had said it would.” God’s will happened at the precise moment He ordained it. God’s will always happens at the precise moment He wants it. Look at this verse:

Galatians 4:4 (NLT) says,

"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman …"

Praise God! Jesus was born of a woman at the exact moment in time that God wanted His will for all mankind to be implemented. Again, this was God’s promise to Abraham fulfilled. Jesus is the King of all Kings!

Can we change or enhance God’s will in any way? Can we slow it down? Can we make His will happen sooner than later?

We can choose to live a life of sin, and fall out of His will. We can choose to walk according to our own way and understanding, and never realize God’s best for us. But we can also run hard after God, and do His will at every turn.

We can choose to serve Him with all of our hearts, and we will see His hand upon our lives in greater and greater ways. God’s timing is still ordained in either circumstance, but the results will be vastly different.

One is God’s perfect will, and the other just becomes our failed attempt to do things our own way.

As Christians we can soar in our dreams, and if we are submitted to God, the reality of that trust in Him is that there is a period of time that must pass before God’s will is implemented.

Who ever said we would get it all on day one? God has built a desire in our hearts as humans to look forward to the future. That is hope.

We hope our lives turn out the way we want. We hope our children live for God. We hope we see what’s over the next mountain. We hope we get the desire God has planted in our hearts. We hope we are doing God’s will.

Time is a tool God uses to mold, and make us into the vessels He wants, to do His will. It is part of the foundation in our walk with God to give us the desires of our hearts. Our spiritual maturity over the passage of time gives the assurance that we are in His plan, and walking according to His plan.

Ecclesiastes 3:11says,

"He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."

We don’t know the end. We don’t know how life will turn out or where it will take us. Our souls are eternal. We will spend our days on earth and beyond, either in God’s wonderful plan or we will be penalized for rejecting it.

We all have things we want in life, but we must trust God and His timing to get them. We have to walk by what we know in our hearts to be true. We have to walk by faith, and not by what we see.

Are you chaffing at God’s bit? Are you feeling impatient? Are you grumbling and complaining that nothing ever seems to go your way? Do you doubt that dream will ever come to pass?

Don’t. Repent of always wanting to do it your way. Trust in God and lean on Him for your future. Don’t let Satan get you on the ropes, and beat you up.

Only the fullness of time will bring about the fruit God has ordained for you. God’s timing will always bring satisfaction and joy.

Just yield and trust in Him. Let God lead and direct your paths in life.

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