God Pre-Chose The Perfect Time To Encourage Me!

What I am about to share I have only read in books and heard from the testimony of others. Personally, I have never experienced this before.

After preaching at Hinghwa Methodist Church this morning, together with the honorarium, Pastor Jonathan handed me another white envelope and said, “Someone wanted me to pass this to you.” Upon reaching home, I took out this white envelope that was addressed “To: Pastor Henson Lim”. Flipping it over, I noticed a note scribbled across the back of the envelope which read:

“Matt 6:26. The Lord had told me to give this to the person who share on Matt 6:26 & I had waited for a few months. God bless!”

At first, I was taken aback by the timing. The Lord give this instruction a few months ago! And this brother patiently and obediently waited until the right time to give to the right speaker!

Then I looked at the verse and I looked at it again … Matt 6:26? That wasn’t the text I preached from today. I was assigned Mark 6:30-44, the feeding of the five thousand. Even if he had written wrongly, I most definitely did not refer to Mark 6:26 which was about King Herod. I promptly opened my bible to look up Matt 6:26 and what I read blew my mind:

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Halfway through the message, to make a point about how much God loves us and watches over us, I referred to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. I shared from Matt 6:26 without even realising it! This was not even in my sermon notes but at the right time, the words just came out of my mouth … and that was enough for this dear brother. Week after week, message after message, he had waited for someone to declare Matt 6:26 so that he could be faithful to respond in obedience to the Lord. Wow!

Allow me to provide the context that the significance might be better appreciated: The past few days, I had been feeling a little down, discouraged and somewhat confused. Perhaps it was just a culmination of all that has been happening: the development of a new ministry, the meeting of different people, the processing of so much new information and counsel, the uncertainty of what laid ahead and the mere thought of how overwhelming everything seemed.

Without doubt, God knows how I am feeling and that I would need some form of encouragement. With His foreknowledge, He pre-planned and pre-chose the perfect timing to encourage me! To think that a few months earlier, He had already pre-empted someone to listen out for a speaker who would say something that was not even in his script! And to top it off, I was not even supposed to be preaching this Sunday … I was the replacement speaker for someone else who had taken ill! If that doesn’t boggle you to leave you speechless, I don’t know what will!

This episode has left me totally in awe! Through this, I am assured that I am not going through this on my own. The Lord is watching over me, He will see me through every challenge and He will provide for my every need! This explains my Facebook post this evening: “Everything is about timing. And when you’re willing to move along with God’s timing, it’s always perfect. #perspective”

What a mighty God I serve! All glory and honour be unto Him!