Did you know that God has a timetable to accomplish His will? And His timetable is always perfect and right on time. I love how Pastor Charles Swindoll put it when he said: “God doesn’t work on our timetable. He has a plan that He will execute perfectly and for the highest, greatest good of all, and for His ultimate glory.”1
And I concur with Pastor Swindoll that God works out all things according to His timetable and for His ultimate glory. And did you know that God even works out His plans before time even existed. Even before time began He had you in His mind and plans, and that He would use you for His glory. Just listen to these precious words of Scripture from (Ephesians 1:3-6): “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
When we read “before the foundation of the world,” this means before God established time, and before you were conceived. Yet in the economy and timetable of God you always existed in the mind of God and He always considered you His child whom He predestined to be used to bring Him glory!
And once you were physically born, God in His sovereignty designed an amazing plan for you to be a part of, to help build His kingdom and bring Him glory. You see God’s awesome plan is to use you, and both the good times and the trials of life for, in the words of Charles Swindoll, “the highest, greatest good of all, and for His ultimate glory.” And in order to do this God looks down the corridor of time and providentially brings about events and circumstances that He will use in our lives to accomplish His will and plans.
I believe that the classic case in Scripture of how God used His sovereignty and timetable to accomplish His plans can be seen in the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis.
At age seventeen, after Joseph shared two dreams portraying that he would rule over his siblings and even his parents, his jealous brothers decided to sell him into slavery. Shortly thereafter Joseph found his way to Egypt where he became a servant in Potiphar’s house. If being a slave was not bad enough, Joseph was then falsely accused of rape by Potiphar’s wife, and thrown into prison. In prison Joseph interprets the dreams of two of Pharaoh’s servants, who found their way there because they displeased the king. After the cupbearer to Pharaoh had a favorable interpretation and was released, Joseph remained in prison two more years. Then Pharaoh had two dreams, and because of Joseph’s gift of interpreting dreams, was summoned by the king; and his interpretations pleased the king so much that he made Joseph, now age thirty, his prime minster.
You might say what a circuitous route Joseph took going from slave to second in command in Egypt – and you would be absolutely correct. From age seventeen to age thirty, God had to work out many things to get Joseph to Egypt where he would be instrumental in saving millions of people from starvation as Egypt’s wise prime minister. God’s timetable and His behind the scenes control of the circumstances that would lead to Joseph’s journey from slave to prime minister of Egypt had to take place because they were all part of God’s divine plan for Joseph. And in the end God used His timetable for His glory!
1 Charles Swindoll – God doesn’t work on our timetable. He has a plan… (bibleportal.com)