Time and Chance

I would just like to encourage anyone out there that is feeling like their season is long overdue. There are many of us waiting for certain things to take place in our lives. Some of us are waiting on receiving jobs, financial relief, spouses, breakthroughs, school acceptance letters and other various things. Sometimes it feels like everybody is getting blessed (including the non-believer) except for you. It often feels like you have been left behind, like you are way behind in the race and you can’t catch up. I know there have been times when I have asked the Lord questions about why I haven’t received what I perceive to be “my blessings” and every time I speak to a brother or sister in Christ, their blessings are so much that they can’t contain it. And while you rejoice with them and praise God for what He is doing in their lives, you can’t help but remember your dryness and how barren you feel.

Sometimes I think that we start to assume or convince ourselves that we must be doing something wrong in our walk. Maybe we need to pray harder, fast more often, attend an extra church service here or there (I am not knocking any of those things, but you can’t assume that doing these things will make your blessing come any faster, it’s on God’s time you can’t rush His hand). Or especially when it comes to the really earthly things, like jobs, purchasing a home, school or spouses; sometimes we think that we are not smart enough, financially stable enough, strong enough or good looking enough. We start to believe these lies and it begins to eat away at us, allowing for depression and feelings of worthlessness to arise.

As I was thinking about certain things in my life, I remembered Ecclesiastes 9:11&12

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to all for man also does not know his time.

Time and chance, it comes down to those two things. Not intelligence, physical fitness, skill, money, understanding but time and chance. That’s it! We are all on the same playing field whether we like to think so or not. Have you ever lost at something that you just knew you were supposed to win, or been rejected from a school that someone else you perceived was less intelligent than you got into? Or even on the flip side of that, have you ever gotten something and thought, “Wow! Me! I won, I got it?” That’s because it comes down to time and chance. Is it logical that David defeated Goliath? That’s because it came down to the fact that it was David’s time to triumph. Not that he was stronger than Goliath but merely it was his time.

Be encouraged! Your time is coming! You are not less than anyone all because it seems as though you are not getting ahead. Leave it up to God! For only a fool would believe in his ability to make everything in his life happen the way he planned it or designed it. Man does not even know his own time. A wise person would trust God to do what he planned to do since the beginning of time. Your time is coming, and don’t worry about anyone else’s time because that does not concern you. Hold on to the truth that God is good and as David said, “He’s never seen the righteous forsaken”.