by Tammy Phillips
October 28, 2024
To everything [there is] a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die… (Ecc 3:1-2 NKJV)
My brain stretches to the point of explosion when thinking about the vastness God’s calendar. He established seasons and appointed times in creation for everything! His word says everything has a DUE TIME, a fixed time, a set time, a point in time, hence an appointment time. THINK ABOUT IT! We declare we have busy schedules, but His appointment book is overflowing and eternal. Thankfully, He is an on-time-God. He is seldom in a hurry but never late!
Abram was around 75 years old when God promised he and Sarai that he would be a father of many nations. In Abraham’s 99th year, the Lord visited him and promised him that the next year he would have a son. Sara, his wife, overheard the conversation and laughed. They had been waiting 25 years! I can hear the Lord laughing back at her when he responded, “Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” (Gen 18:14 NKJV)
Have you waited 25 years for the Lord to deliver on a promise? I have not waited 25 years, but I did wait a painstaking 25 hours for the birth of our first granddaughter.
What are you waiting for? Do you have a promise of God are your holding onto to get your through?
God’s word is alive, powerful, and mighty. During the last few months before the birth of our first granddaughter, Holy Spirit had relentlessly kept dropping three small words in my spirit, IN DUE TIME, in due time, in due time.” My response was , “I hear your Lord, but WHAT are you trying to teach me?”
On September 19, I discovered why He had been preparing my heart with those three simple words. Our kids went to the hospital around 10 PM that night believing labor had started. They found out they would indeed be staying around midnight! Caroline was already 40% ready! Praise God. The nurse told them Harper should arrive before her shift ended at 7:00 am.
I brought a project to the hospital. I hoped by the time I finished, our granddaughter would be present and accounted for on planet earth. My labor of love was completed around 3 AM, before even the next family member would arrive. Dawn peaked over the horizon and the nurses shift ended, no Harper. Twelve hours passed before Caroline’s Mom arrived. Eight more hours transpired before her Dad appeared and then two more hours evaporated before her sister show up. Yet, Harper still continued to bake away inside Mom.
I cannot imagine how our kids were feeling. There were times I felt crushed by the weight and wait of it all! BUT GOD… I had a word from the LORD seeded deep in my heart, “IN DUE TIME!” It was a word to stand on. I breathed in Jesus, had faith in God and repeated His promises! “In due time. In due time. In due time. “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me”( John 14:1, CSB).
All the while, I breathed out the fearful thoughts Satan was bombarding me with on the battlefield in my mind. They were brutal, but God was greater.
Finally, 25 hours later, 11:08 PM, we heard the chimes in the hospital signifying a baby had been born. It was our Harper! God (and her warrior mother) had delivered His promise in due time with just minutes to spare on her actual due date! The promise delivered was so worth the wait. Grandchildren are the crown of the aged! (Pro 17:6 ESV). All Glory to God!
My husband, Kris, so beautifully wrote, “For nearly 25 hours I sat in the hospital waiting room anxiously awaiting the cry of my first granddaughter. Throughout the roller coaster ride, I learned that the miracle of birth isn’t defined by a clock, medical team, nor me, but by God’s hand.”
I learned, “Beloved, Do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day [is] as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us….” (2Pe 3:8-9 NKJV)
Those 25 hours seem like a thousand years, but the Lord was not slack and God’s hand delivered in due time.
I enCOURAGE you! “Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.”(Heb 10:23 CSB). God ALWAYS answers in His time. It may not be the answer we wanted, but He always shows up for His appointments.
The story does not end there…stay tuned…
Complete in Him 