What to do when “in due time” doesn’t seem like the right time
By Dean Collins
“In due time” just doesn’t seem acceptable in some situations. If you have a hard deadline and someone, maybe even God, suggests “in due time ,“ it’s enough to send you over the edge. (Speaking for a friend of course. )
If you asked one of the kids to set the table for dinner and they responded “in due time,” I suspect there would be consequences. When deadlines are missed, bad things can happen. The IRS starts the penalty clock if we say “in due time” we’ll get around to paying our taxes.
I looked it up in the dictionary and “in due time” means “eventually or at the right time.” If there is a right time, then there must be a wrong time, right? Does God need some help to determine that sometimes the “due time” is now? I bet I’m not the only one who has experienced moments where waiting just doesn’t seem to be a plausible option.
Praying and waiting
Penninah apparently had plenty of due times. And Hannah kept praying year after year for her due time to finally come. Hannah was more loved by Elkanah than his other wife, Penninah. Elkanah probably only married Penninah after years of not having a child by his true love, Hannah.
Based on the few verses in 1 Samuel that describe this situation, we can also conclude that Hannah was more kind and more prayerful than Penninah. Penninah was apparently relentlessly provoking and irritating Hannah. We don’t know Hannah’s responses, if any, to Penninah; but we know the agony and despair led her to diligence in prayer. In fact, she prayed so much and so intently that Eli, the priest, thought her to be drunk as she silently moved her lips nearly trancelike. When Eli confronted her, he discovered her desperation and great desire for God to intervene in her suffering. Eli blessed her and gave her assurance that God had heard her prayer, and he also prayed that God would grant her request.
Exhausted and desperate
Often when you or I see someone suffering, with compassion we may say, “I will be praying for you.” Sometimes we say, “God knows your need” or the clincher: “All we can do is wait on God’s timing. “ Often it’s comforting to hear these words, but if we are honest we’ll admit this “due time” theology is sometimes exhausting. It was for Hannah who had prayed for years. And in final desperation, she told God that if he would give her a son, she would give him back. In due time begs the question: What do we do in the meantime? And have you noticed how "mean" the times seem when we are waiting for an answer to some prayers?
According to Scripture, “In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, ‘I have asked for him from the Lord.’”
When we have urgent needs, we want a prescription that works. We like a formula to follow that will bring the right and final remedy or answer to our situation. Yet we know that as much as we want God just to give us the recipe for success, his ways can’t be cataloged in a way that creates the results we want when we want them.
Our best option
When Jesus arrived on the earth he was also an answer to Hannah’s prayer. If you read Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2 you hear familiar themes. Some sections of this prayer sound much like parts of the Sermon on the Mount. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we discover that Hannah’s prayers came true. Jesus did defeat our adversaries. He did become the anointed one who would reconcile all things. And he would confirm that prayer is our best option in times of need.
Matthew 6 reminds us to pray often, pray privately, pray for God’s will above our own, pray for daily bread, pray for things to be on earth as they are in Heaven. And after all of these instructions on prayer, Jesus said don’t be anxious. Seek first God’s kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.
When will they be added? In due time, of course. It might be today, it might be a year, it might be a generation, it might be in eternity. We don’t get to control due time. That job is reserved for our Father in Heaven.
Don’t stop praying quietly and with diligence like Hannah. God knows our needs and he knows the way and the time to meet them. We must trust that his ways and timing are always best.
Your time with God’s Word
1 Samuel 1:10-28; 2:7-10 ESV
Photo by Andreas Wohlfahrt from Pexels
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