Counting the Days: December 15, 2025

God’s Good Timing

Kirbie Dockery, M.S.
Methodist University
Class of 2003

Read: Luke 18:1-8

“To fold hands in prayer is an uprising against the world’s disorder.”
 – Karl Barth (AD 1886 – AD 1968)

Have you ever prayed desperately for something for a long time? As we wait and our prayer goes unanswered, sometimes it makes us wonder if God cares. We wait and we question if God even sees us. Maybe you’ve had a family member with a scary diagnosis who is waiting for a cure. Or maybe you’ve had a financial challenge that made you wonder how you were going to make ends meet. Sometimes we’re waiting for our future spouse or a friend.

I always thought I’d meet my husband in college at Methodist, graduate, and get married soon after. Instead. I left with a diploma but no prospects. I returned years later to work at MU for six years and eventually moved back to Maryland again. Two years later, I started dating a man who, of all places, was working at Methodist.

It was a sweet reminder that God’s timing is never off. What felt like painful waiting with unanswered prayers were just prayers in progress. I thought I’d find my husband at Methodist, and I did. I just had to leave twice before God’s plan came full circle.

Advent is a season of waiting. The widow in Jesus’ story embodies this kind of Advent waiting. She has no power, no privilege, no guarantee of being heard. Yet she keeps showing up. She refuses to stop believing that justice will come. Jesus uses her story to remind us that faith isn’t proven in moments or quick answers. It’s proven in persistent waiting. It’s in the middle of long desperate nights and unanswered prayers that faith becomes real.

And, unlike the unjust judge, God is not reluctant to listen. He doesn’t need to be worn down. but He invites us to keep coming back, because each prayer is an act of trust that shapes us more into people of hope. Advent teaches us to wait like the widow: with stubborn hope, unshaken prayer, and quiet faith that God’s timing is good, even when it feels slow.

Prayer: Lord, teach us to wait with the persistent hope of the widow, trusting Your timing even when answers feel far away. Strengthen our hearts in the silence, and remind us that every prayer draws us closer to Your faithful love. Amen.