For those of you who have been reading my posts from the beginning, you will perhaps remember that I used to write five nights a week – Sunday night through Thursday evening. When I passed the mark of having written more than 1000 posts over the course of more than four years (I started writing on my birthday, Feb. 19th, 2011), I started dealing with the issues of when to call it a day. But I just couldn’t give it up – I really still feel driven to write these articles and let the world know how God is present in our everyday lives – He just didn’t speak the world into existence and then sit back and relax.
But for the first time in almost 1100 posts, something happened last week – I posted my last blog a day early. That’s right – I was planning on writing Thursday but I knew that it was going to be a busy day. So I wrote a day early, knowing that everything would be ready when the time came. But, a funny thing happened – I pushed “post” and didn’t remember that I was a day early. Many of you have contacted me and wondered why I did that. I don’t have a good answer – I just made a mistake. Then, I felt just a little bit guilty and thought I should write a bonus post on Thursday so I could get everyone’s expectations back on schedule. But, as I suspected, time was at a premium and so I decided to take today and just explain what happened.
Of course, I am sorry if I threw your week off. I am sure that I caught a number of you by surprise. And I have taken quite a bit of kidding that I can’t remember what day it is. But there is something that came out of this. It should be noted that it is better to be early than late and never in the history of TBTB have I been a day late with a post! That’s right – never late!
It occurs to me that God is the gold standard of being dependable and never late. I know that we, in our human frailty, cry out to God when we think we need Him, but He knows our need and is never late to come to our aid. Sure, we would like God earlier and not have to go through some of the discomfort that we experience, but things happen in God’s timing – not ours.
By the way, God is also rarely early. If God addressed our concerns way before we had true need, it would negatively impact our faith and we may become reliant on ourselves rather than trust in God to be there when we really need Him. That helps us build character. And how many times in our lives have we, after the fact, seen the wisdom of something that God did for us that turned out to be for our benefit – although at the time we didn’t see it that way.
The verse for this evening speaks to the presence of God and how He is there – even if He is silent. We are told, from the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 41:10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Those are quite reassuring words. My encouragement this evening is that God is with you – period… He is there when you need Him and even when you don’t have an immediate problem that requires His attention. My prayer is that you will rest in the eternal assurance that God has us covered – always. As He tells us, He will strengthen and help us – no matter what. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace, and once again, I’m sorry I threw your week off!