His Timing, Not Mine

I know this verse well. I’ve heard many sermons preached on it over the years.

This verse sounds easy enough, but there’s nothing easy about humbling yourself. Most of us don’t do it very well—and if we’re honest, sometimes we don’t want to do it at all.

Humility goes against our human nature.

We want to be right. We want to be recognized. We want to be appreciated. We want people to see our efforts and acknowledge what we’ve done. We want things to happen when we think they should happen and in the way we think they should happen.

But God asks us to humble ourselves under His mighty hand.

That means recognizing that He is God and I am not.

It means trusting that He sees what I cannot see. He knows what I do not know. He understands the beginning, the middle and the end when all I can see is what is right in front of me.

And that's where humility becomes difficult.

Sometimes humbling ourselves means admitting that we don't have all the answers. Sometimes it means letting go of our need to control the outcome. Sometimes it means being quiet when we really want to defend ourselves. Sometimes it means waiting when we'd rather be moving.

And sometimes it means trusting God when we don't understand what He's doing.

I've learned over the years that there is a blessing that comes with humbling yourself before God. Not because humility earns us anything, but because it puts our hearts in the right position to receive what God wants to do.

“That He may lift you up in due time.”

I love those last words: in due time.

Not my time.

Not when I think I'm ready.

Not when I think I deserve it.

Not when everyone else thinks it should happen.

God's time.

I've learned that God's timing is often different from mine. There have been things I've prayed for, waited for and wondered about. There have been seasons when I've thought, Lord, when is this going to change? When are You going to move? When am I going to see the answer?

But God has taught me that waiting isn't wasted time.

Sometimes God is doing a work in us before He does a work through us.

Sometimes the lifting doesn't look like what we expected. Sometimes it's not a promotion, a breakthrough or the answer to the prayer we've been praying. Sometimes God lifts us by giving us strength to endure something we never thought we could endure. Sometimes He lifts us by changing our perspective. Sometimes He gives us peace in the middle of circumstances that haven't changed at all.

And sometimes, eventually, He does open the door we've been waiting for.

But whatever the lifting looks like, we can trust the One doing the lifting.

I've learned that I don't have to fight to make things happen when God has told me to wait. I don't have to prove myself to everyone. I don't have to make sure everyone understands me. I don't have to manipulate circumstances to get the outcome I want.

I can humble myself, put it in God's hands and trust Him.

Now, that's not always easy.

But it is freeing.

Because when I truly believe that God is sovereign, I don't have to carry the weight of trying to be my own provider, protector, defender and promoter. I can let God be God.

And when He chooses to lift me up, I know it won't be because I forced my way there.

It will be because His mighty hand brought me there.

Maybe you're in a season of waiting right now. Maybe you've been praying about something for a long time and wondering why God hasn't moved yet.

Don't mistake God's silence for God's absence.

Don't mistake waiting for being forgotten.

And don't think that because you haven't seen the lifting yet, God isn't working.

Keep humbling yourself. Keep trusting Him. Keep doing what He's called you to do. Keep your heart surrendered to Him.

I know that's what I'm gonna do.

Because there is a due time.

And when God's time comes, He knows exactly how to lift you up.

Not because you pushed your way to the top.

Not because you made it happen.

But because you trusted the One who was holding you all along.

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.”

I'm learning to be okay with God's due time instead of constantly asking Him to hurry up and meet mine.

And honestly, I think that's part of what humility really looks like.