Have you ever picked up a book and not been able to get into it? Then, another time you’ve come back to the same book and enjoyed reading it. This is hardly surprising. According to author Doris Lessing “You have to read a book at the right time for you, and I am sure this cannot be insisted on too often, for it is the key to the enjoyment of literature.”
The above quote came from Mid august issue of Buzz Words – a newsletter in Australia for writers of children’s and young adult books. This was a reprint from an article How we lost the plot by Agnes Nieuwenhuizen, originally published in the Melbourne Age.
It made me think that it’s not just ordinary books this happens with. The same is true with the bible.
Sometimes we read a passage and it doesn’t have any great effect on us. Another time, those same verses almost leap off the page. They speak to us, or convict us or encourage us, because it is the right time and we are ready to receive them. Maybe we needed to mature before we were able to appreciate and understand what God was saying, or perhaps our circumstances have changed, so we are now ready to learn from the verses.
This has been my experience. Verses that had seemed hard to undertand or to have no real impact at one time, at other times come to be meaningful truths to cling to, to convict, to help with decisions or to shape behaviour.
While we were waiting to move last year, the verse God kept reminding us continually of was Isaiah 55:12. It seemed to be everywhere we turned.
God did bring us out with joy and peace at His right time. We now live in the place God chose for us, as part of the church God chose for us, and have never been happier, because it was a God designed and God-driven decision that came at His time – the right time.
Please visit these related blogs
The Gift or Blessing in Each Day – Part 2
How Can You Know God’s Will for Your Life?- Part 1