It was the great missionary to China, Hudson Taylor that said, “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.” From my own experiences I have added the words, “in God’s timing” because His timing is not always our timing.
Consider the following examples.
Isaiah wrote, “When the time is right, I the Lord will make it happen.” Isaiah 60:22
Sarah said at the birth of Isaac, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” Genesis 21:7
Solomon, a man of great wisdom, wrote “He has made everything beautiful in HIS TIME.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
Sometimes it is only in retrospect that we can appreciate the wisdom of God’s timing and conclude that He is never too early and never too late.
There are no more important words for a leader to understand and take to heart than these; “God’s will done in God’s way and in God’s time will never lack God’s supply.”
It is…..
- GOD’S WILL : “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
- GOD’S WAY : “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways”, declares the Lord, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
- GOD’S TIMING : “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
- GOD’S SUPPLY : “But my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in Glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
As Sue and I have committed our lives to doing God’s will in God’s way and in God’s timing, we have never lacked God’s supply and have found that His sustaining grace has been sufficient for us.
On one occasion, we were led by the Lord to take leave without pay from my ministry in Australia in order that I could study for two years in America. All was going well until we came to the end of the first year and then a time of testing unfolded. We suddenly realised that our financial situation had become critical and that the lease on our rental home was coming to an end and we had not been able to find replacement accommodation. But God’s will done in God’s ways in God’s timing will never lack God’s supply.
Consequently, one Sunday afternoon we took time to pray for God’s provision to meet our family’s (by now urgent) needs. And we weren’t disappointed. The very next day I had an unexpected phone call from the pastor of my church in Australia. He said, “Rod, you and your family have been away for twelve months, and I thought it would be a good idea to take up a love offering to assist you and in our worship services yesterday we did just that. I am going to arrange for the offering to be deposited in your American bank account.” And the generous amount was sufficient to meet our needs for the remainder of our time in America.
The following day, our next-door neighbour came knocking on our door with a surprise request. He shared, “Rod, I have been trying to sell my house for some time without any success. I am wondering if you could place a note on your Bible College noticeboard advising that our home is available to rent.” I was taken aback and responded by telling him to look no further and that we would happily rent his house for the remainder of our stay in America. A few days later we took time to transfer our belongings to our next-door neighbour’s house, not a day too late. Sometimes God’s timing can occur at the last-minute. Consider the Lord’s parting of the sea as the Egyptian army were about to bear down on the Israelites. ‘The King had one more move.’ Exodus 14.
This is just one of a number of stories in our personal and ministry life where we were able to prove that God’s will done in God’s way and in God’s timing will never lack God’s supply. And if you haven’t arrived at this point in your life and ministry why not take a faith step today and……
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And lean not to your own understanding
In all your ways acknowledge Him
And He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6
This will mean that you will choose to do…..
- God’s work no matter how much it might be “exceedingly abundantly above all that you may ask or think.”
- In God’s ways which will be “higher than your ways.”
- In God’s timing which is “always right”
- That will never lack God’s supply which will always be “according to His riches”
And the world will watch and stand in awe and declare that only God could have done this. For this has been my testimony as in my senior years I look back and marvel at the ways of God that have unfolded in my life. And He hasn’t finished yet!
So do it now, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will do this.”
Psalm 57:2
In his inspiring book, The Last Arrow, Erwin McManus writes, “The Last Arrow is a call to never settle about what God intends to do with your life. You have to know what matters; you have to know who you are; and you have to know what your life is to be given to. For in the end, the one thing you must never settle for less is the calling that God has on your life, the purpose for which He has created you, the impact He designed you to make in the world. That when you take your last breath, you will know without reservation that you have given everything you have, everything you are, to the life you have been entrusted with.”
How sad it would be if you came to the end of your life and realised that you had been doing what you could do with your resources and you never got to do what God wanted you to do with His resources. Rather, how special to look back on your life and say as Abraham’s servant said, “I, being in the way, the Lord led me.”
Genesis 24:27 (NKJV)
Note: all scripture quoted from the New International Version