Timing is the Father's Business

Our pastors have been talking about Acts lately, and more specifically addressing the reality of the Resurrection. 

So I dutifully dug out my Bible (typed in biblegateway?) as suggested and read the opening of Dr. Luke's book in two translations - my favored The Message and the latest adopted translation for the LCMS, the English Standard Version.

The Message, Acts 1:1-11

ESV, Acts 1:1-11

The ESV phrase is: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” The Message expresses this phrase as: "You don't get to know the time. Timing is the Father's business".

Timing is the Father's business. That was a really neat awareness for the day. It really is His business in different contexts: it's up to Him, not you; it's what He does, His job; timing is something that keeps Him busy, timing does not just happen; ... keep thinking about it for a while.

We who have chosen to be disciples, as the followers of Christ called themselves (or followers of the Way - but NEVER calling themselves Christians, a derogatory term)  try to relate His word to how we choose to live our lives. In so doing we feel like we are following the Way. So, we always jump on Romans 8:26-28 to explain unexplainable, and most of the time bad, stuff: in The Message then the ESV

•   "Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."
• 26 "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

And now I remember the old song, "Who Knows Where or When?" "called according to his purpose" cf. worked into something good. Different, but the same. 


He assures us things will get better. He also assures us that timing is strictly His business. We are well to remember that.