Sometimes we assume we’re waiting—or that we don’t have something yet—because we missed God, don’t have enough faith, the enemy is delaying it, or it’s simply not God’s intention for our lives.

But Scripture also gives us another category: perhaps we simply haven’t reached God’s appointed time for the thing to come forth.

I believe Hannah is a powerful depiction of this. Many of us read her story and see barrenness, but what if the appointed time TO BEAR simply hadn’t come yet?

Sometimes Yahweh’s ways seem to contradict His ways. We know that children are a gift from Yahweh, yet Scripture tells us that Yahweh had closed Hannah’s womb.

Why? While Scripture doesn’t explicitly tell us, I think the narrative invites us to see that what Hannah was called to give birth to was far greater than her desire for a child…Samuel’s life was interwoven into God’s larger purposes for Israel.

Samuel’s birth wasn’t merely the answer to Hannah’s prayers. He entered into time at the moment God had appointed.

We see this with Jeremiah.

God told Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the innermost parts I knew you, And before you came out from the womb I set you apart; I have given you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah‬ ‭1‬:‭5‬ ‭LSB‬‬

Before Jeremiah was ever formed he had been set apart.

And in verse 10 “See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms.

Although God commissioned Jeremiah at that moment, the appointment itself preceded his birth.

We also see this with Jesus Christ, who entered the world “when the fullness of time had come” (Galatians 4:4).

So, throughout Scripture, we see that God’s purposes unfold according to His appointed timing.

A proper prophetic lens looks beyond the absence or the delay and asks, “What if this isn’t God’s denial, but His timing? Could it be that He is still unfolding something greater, and His appointed time has not yet come?”

Blessings!