In God’s Time

A particular discouragement comes not from failure, but from waiting. You haven’t given up. You have done nothing wrong. You’re simply waiting. And the silence feels like an answer you didn’t want.

I’ve sat with enough people over the years — and spent enough time in my own seasons of waiting — to know how heavy that silence can be. But I’ve also seen what comes out of it often enough to believe something important: sometimes God reveals his will first through what doesn’t happen.

Samuel learned that the hard way. Sent to Bethlehem to anoint a new king, he arrived with a clear picture in mind. He’d seen Saul — tall, impressive, the man people follow. Surely the next king would fit the same mold. Jesse lined up his sons. Eliab stepped forward. Samuel thought, ” This is the one.”

But God said no. And then no again. Seven times, Samuel watched a promising candidate step up, and seven times, the answer was no. Samuel stood and asked, “Are these all the sons you have?” He’d exhausted the list. He came up dry. It’s a humbling moment for a prophet.

In that moment of emptiness, God’s choice appeared — a boy uninvited to the gathering. David was out in the fields because nobody thought of him. He didn’t fit the image. He was young, ruddy, better known for keeping sheep and playing music than for any military prowess. But God looked at something nobody else was looking at — his heart.

That shepherd boy became Israel’s greatest king. The man nobody put on the list became the standard by which all future kings were measured. God’s “not him, not him, not him” turned into the most significant “yes” in Israel’s history.

I find enormous comfort in that story because most of us know what it feels like to stand in Samuel’s shoes. We exhaust the obvious options and wonder what comes next. The answer the story shows is both simple and demanding: wait, and trust. Trust that God sees what you can’t see. Trust that his “no” may clear space for something you wouldn’t have thought to ask for.

The Lord has his own time, and it may not be the Lord’s time yet. He will reveal it at the right time, and the right answer will come forward.

When the time finally came for God to send his Son into the world, Paul tells us it was the fullness of time — every detail in place, every moment accounted for. God is not careless with timing. He wasn’t then. He isn’t now.

Whatever you’re waiting on today, stay faithful. The right season will come. The right answer will come. In God’s good time — and that time is always worth the wait.