God's Perfect Timing

Philippians 4:19 – And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (NKJV)

Some time back, Jackie and I decided to start checking out various auto dealers for a used SUV-type vehicle for Jackie's home-care work. Some of the roads she navigates are remote and pretty rough, so we needed something higher off the ground than a car.

After praying about this, we checked out our local places, then took a trip to Kamloops. We spent pretty much the whole day looking at and test-driving various vehicles, none of which had the right combination of price, visibility, and comfort for Jackie's back.

As dusk was settling in and we were thinking we weren't going to find anything that day after all, we drove to the opposite end of town and happened to notice another dealership.

As we strolled onto their lot, a salesman mentioned that they had just received delivery of a used vehicle that had been driven in from Alberta, which had actually arrived ahead of time. The asking price was in our ballpark, so we decided to take it out for a test drive with this fellow.

As we were driving around, Jackie knew that this was definitely going to be our best bet. The salesman asked us where we were from and what we did, and when we mentioned that I was a Christian pastor, he surprised us by saying that he himself was a new Christian, and that his brother had just recently led him to receive Jesus into his life as Lord and Saviour.

We then had a really good chat together with this new brother in Christ, getting to know him a little better in sharing things from the Lord in our lives. By the time we got back and made the deal for the vehicle, it was past closing time at the dealership. After we had signed all the paperwork, our new friend, Murray, told us that he had been praying for a desperately-needed financial boost, as he and his family had really been hit hard. He then thanked and praised God (and us), because it was the last day of the month, and this sale was just enough to qualify him for their monthly sales bonus.

Talk about God's perfect timing in answering prayer! A place we had no intention of bothering with, a vehicle arriving ahead of time, a Christian in need, the right thing for us at the right price, and desperately-needed bonus money for Murray and his family for which he qualified on the last day of the month and after business hours. Just before we left, he phoned his wife with this great news as to why he was late getting home. Murray thought that he had run out of time for this to happen, but for God, it was just another display of His perfect timing in all things.

Not all of our prayers are answered in such dramatic ways, but it is encouraging to know that our God is a God of love and power, and that He does have miraculous ways of providing for our needs. We just need to trust Him.

Prayer: Lord, help us never to forget that You are in control and that You love us. Help us to trust Your timing in the working out of Your will in our lives and in all things. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Bruce Wilcox < bwilcox2@live.ca>