12/13/2015: I would love to have perfect timing. My fault has always been, being too early. I recall inquiring of God why the idea He gave me did not work. Upon hearing, I immediately put it into action. He explained to me that my problem was timing. He said I gave you the idea or seed in the winter and you immediately planted it to no avail. The idea or seed was to be planted at a later time in the warm soil of late spring. The idea was so clever and looked like a sure success; I planted it right away without any other consideration. However, much to my surprise, there was no success. The timing was wrong.
I love this following analogy from football. We can see on television the football coach looking over a sheet of potential plays to be called in the game. He assesses each situation and then calls the play he believes will be most successful in each situation. Even though he knows a field goal attempt has worked in the past, he does not call that play when his team has the ball on his own 1 yard line. It is not the best time for this call. On the other hand the timing may be right for a field goal. This is when his team is down by 2 points and there are 4 seconds left, it is fourth down on the 10 yard line he would not call for spiking the ball which was a good idea last week. This week to stop the clock would cause time to run out and he loses the game by one point. He would call for the most likely successful play at this time; an attempted field goal. If made he wins. There is a time for everything.
For the Christian, God has a play book. He has written all the possible plays down or every known situation. i.e. Bible. There are so many that the right one might not come to mind for a given situation. However we have a coach who knows what is the best play.
(John 14:26) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
So God has said He would bring the right word to our remembrance. However, we may by experience recall several like Words. Therefore it takes discernment to know which of the many “plays” would be best in the present situation. We then need the gift of discernment, plus the confidence (faith) in His Word to execute.
Timing is very important. One play for this time and different play for the same situation at another time. (Ecclesiastes 3: 108) There is a time for everything. There may be a time for spiking the ball and another time for a field goal.
1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6. A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
As I read over the list I am going to start with improving my timing on when to speak.