For Such a Time as This and Why Your Time Is Now

God is a God of the pop quiz.

He'll let you end up in a situation you didn't sign up for, didn't prepare for, and didn't see coming. It feels like an accident, but it's not. It's a positioning. And the question isn't whether you studied. The question is whether you'll answer the call when the moment shows up.

I want you to hear me: this word is coming for the procrastination spirit in your life. The excuses. The "I'll start when..." list. The waiting for perfect conditions. God is about to call all of that bluff.

God Already Knew Where He Wanted You

Jeremiah 1:5 says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and I approved you as my chosen instrument. Before you were born I consecrated you. I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

You were approved before you arrived. You were positioned before you were born. Psalm 139:16 takes it further: "You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."

So when life feels like a pop quiz you didn't study for, remember: the One grading the test already wrote the answer key. He's not asking you to get it perfect. He's asking you to trust that He put you in the room on purpose.

I'll be honest with you. When I got to college, my mother called me and said, "Jomo, we don't have any more money. You better figure it out." I was trying to be an engineer. I wasn't planning on football being my path. But when the money dried up, I started looking for ways to survive. I walked on for track. Then one summer, the football coach offered me a full scholarship. I ended up getting drafted to the NFL without ever playing high school football.

What I thought was a crisis was God repositioning me. The dry season wasn't punishment. It was direction. God was ordering my steps through the very thing I thought was working against me. Sometimes God will dry up a well just to move you toward a better one.

Meet Esther

Esther chapter 4 is the setup. There's a man named Haman who hates the Jews and has convinced the king to sign a law killing them all. Mordecai, Esther's uncle, hears about it and tears his clothes and sits in the city in sackcloth and ashes. Esther, who is now the queen, doesn't even know what's happening until her servants bring her word.

Here's the thing about Esther: she didn't ask for any of this. She didn't campaign to be queen. She was raised an orphan by her cousin, and through a series of strange events, she ended up married to a king who didn't even know she was Jewish. She was hiding her identity. She was just trying to survive in a palace full of politics she didn't choose.

But God had positioned her for a moment she didn't see coming.

Mordecai sends her a message through her servant. He tells her what's happening and asks her to go to the king and plead for her people. And Esther sends back the reason she can't: "All the king's servants know that anyone who goes into the king's inner court without being summoned will be put to death. Unless the king extends his golden scepter, that person dies. And I haven't been summoned in 30 days."

Translation: "I would help, but the timing is wrong. The risk is too high. I can't just walk in there."

That sounds familiar to anybody who's ever been called to do something hard.

For Such a Time as This

Mordecai's response in Esther 4:13-14 is one of the most famous passages in the Bible for a reason.

"Do not think that because you are in the king's palace you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?"

Read that last sentence again. "Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?"

Mordecai was saying something every one of us needs to hear. God may have put you exactly where you are right now, in the situation you think is unfair, at the job you think is beneath you, in the marriage you think is too hard, for a purpose you can't see yet. What feels like a trap might actually be an assignment.

Sometimes God puts you in position not for you, but so you can open the door for somebody else. And sometimes we get into position and forget how we got there, forget who held the door open for us, forget that our seat at the table was given, not earned. Esther had to be reminded that her crown came with a calling.

The Time Will Never Be Right

Here's where God started downloading something to me that I want you to hear. There are four excuses that will keep you stuck forever if you let them.

Excuse one: The time will never be right.

Proverbs 26:13 says, "The lazy person who is self-indulgent relies on lame excuses. 'There's a lion in the road. There's a lion in the open square. If I go outside to work, I'll be killed.'"

You know the people in your life who have an excuse for everything. They're not hiring. The market's bad. My back hurts. The car's acting up. The kids are sick. The weather. The economy. The timing.

Listen, I worked at Walmart doing taxes in a Jackson Hewitt shirt, standing in front of the store, looking like a security guard. People would walk up and ask me if I was security. That was not the job I wanted. But I had to work while God was working on me. Sometimes God puts you in a pop quiz with no title and no paycheck that matches your value, just to see how you respond.

Excuse two: The circumstances could always be better.

Ecclesiastes 11:4 says, "He who watches the wind waiting for all conditions to be perfect will not sow, and he who looks to the clouds will never reap a harvest."

A good plan violently executed today is better than a great plan you never get around to doing. My first book took me five years because every time I read it, I'd rewrite it. I'd see something new. I'd change a word. I'd rearrange a paragraph. Finally I had to set a hard deadline and let it go.

Here's something wild: Apple, one of the richest companies on earth, will sell you a broken device and tell you they'll send you a patch later. They know it's not perfect. They ship it anyway. Boeing sells planes with known issues and promises fixes. If those companies can launch imperfect things and keep moving, why are you still holding your dream hostage waiting for perfect conditions?

Excuse three: You'll never have all the information you need.

Paul himself said in 1 Corinthians 13:12, "Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely."

Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, and he admitted he didn't see everything clearly. None of us do. Every person is looking through their own set of lenses shaped by their upbringing, their experiences, their fears, and their wounds. If you're waiting for complete clarity before you move, you're going to be waiting forever.

Stop waiting for a co-signer on the thing God told you to do. How can people co-sign on something they weren't authorized to give you in the first place? God gave it to you. God will back it. Move.

Excuse four: You'll never feel 100% ready.

Moses tried this one in Exodus 4. God called him and he immediately started listing his qualifications problems. "I don't speak well. I stutter. I'm not good with words. Send somebody else." God's answer was basically, "Who do you think made the human mouth? Get going. I'll be with your mouth and teach you what to say."

I felt the same way when God called me to pastor. I said, "Lord, I got ghetto tendencies. My vernacular is off. My pants fall down sometimes. You sure you want me?" And God said, "That's exactly why I want you. Before the call is the choosing, and before the choosing I already had people who need your voice."

When I was 16, I worked at a place called Discovery Zone. I was good at entertaining kids, but I hated the part of the job where I had to announce birthday parties over the PA system. I was a poor reader and a worse speaker. I'd beg one of the girls to do the announcements for me because I didn't want to hear my own voice over the speakers. My greatest gift was locked inside my greatest fear. And that's true for a lot of us. Wherever the fear is, that's where the freedom is. The enemy knows it, which is why he keeps you trapped in the one area God wants to use the most.

If I Perish, I Perish

After Mordecai challenges her, Esther makes her decision. Esther 4:16: "Go gather all the Jews and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days. I and my maids will fast the same way. Then I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."

That's the posture. Not "I know exactly how this ends." Not "I've got every contingency figured out." Just, "I'm moving. And if it costs me everything, so be it."

God is not looking for people who have it all figured out. He's looking for people who will say yes with shaking hands. People who will move before the fear is gone. People who understand that faith is spelled R-I-S-K.

Esther walked in. The king extended the golden scepter. Her people were saved. An entire nation was delivered because one woman decided the time was now.

Your Time Is Now

2 Timothy 1:7 says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind."

Every time God gave a command in Scripture, He followed it with "fear not." Fear not, go. Fear not, speak. Fear not, build. Because the moment God gives you a vision, the enemy shows up to steal it before you can move on it. That's why who you talk to matters. Faith comes by hearing, but so does fear. Surround yourself with people who speak life over you. People who see the king or queen God put inside you, not the fool that's still working its way out.

You were alive today for a reason. God didn't keep you breathing so you could keep procrastinating. He kept you breathing because He has work for you to do, and the appointment on your calendar is now.

Stop waiting for the timing to be right. Stop waiting for the conditions to be perfect. Stop waiting for all the information to come in. Stop waiting to feel 100% ready.

Your time is now.