When is the right time?

Interestingly, Jesus made four comments about time and in particular noted that these were not the right time for Him to get involved:

Matthew 26:18 And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”‘”

John 2:4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.”

John 7:8 “Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.”

John 7:30 So they were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.

My favourite chapter in the Bible is Ecc. 3 which is devoted to the subject of time and gives you the full version of God‘s message regarding time.

I believe that in any of the example used by Jesus, it was not through fear and cowardice that He declined, but in prudence, because His hour was not yet come.

Paul makes a note that the Holy Spirit will not always strive with us and that now is the time of salvation.  So it seems that in times of imminent peril it is not only allowable, but advisable, to withdraw and abscond for our own safety and preservation, and to choose the service of those places which are least perilous. Then, and not till then, we are called to expose and lay down our lives, when we cannot save them without sin. If the providence of God casts persons of merit into places of obscurity and little note, it must not be thought strange; it was the lot of Jesus Himself. He who was fit to have sat in the highest of Moses‘s seats willingly walked in Galilee among the ordinary sort of people. Observe, He did not sit still in Galilee, nor bury himself alive there, but walked; he went about doing good. When we cannot do what and where we would, we must do what and where we can.

Those who live useless lives have their time always ready; they can go and come when they please. But those whose time is filled up with duty will often find themselves strained, and they have not yet time for that which others can do at any time. Those who are made the servants of God, as all of us are, and who have made themselves the servants of all, as all useful people have, must not expect not covet to be masters of their own time. The confinement of business is a thousand times better than the liberty of idleness.

I found this blog with a similar title – it might help you in another area that you might want to engage in – http://blcs.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/when-is-the-right-time/