“And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.” – Luke 1:20, KJV

Embedded in the angelic words is a truth that reverberates through all of Scripture and human experience – whether people like it or not, God’s promises to me “will be fulfilled in their season.” A big Amen to that.

The word ‘season’ in biblical parlance is never arbitrary.

It speaks to divine appointment, to the precise intersection of preparation and purpose.

John the Baptist could not arrive a year too soon or too late.

His birth had to be calibrated perfectly within salvation history. 

He was destined to be the herald of the Messiah.

He was to be the voice crying in the wilderness, the baptizer who would usher Jesus from the carpenter’s workshop into public ministry at exactly 30 years of age.

God’s redemptive plan required exact timing, and not even Zechariah’s disbelief could derail it, though he paid for it with a nine-month period of complete dumbness.

This reveals a sobering reality: our doubt does not cancel God’s promises, but it can rob us of the peace that comes from trusting His timetable.

Zechariah, a priest who had served God for decades before the altar, knew the Holy Scriptures pretty well.

He understood better than most people at the time that God had opened women’s barren wombs before – Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah.

Yet, when the promise came to him personally, he stumbled.

May this Christmas season teach us the truth that His timing is always perfect – always right on time – never too early and never late.

Contrast his response with that of Mary – a teenage girl who was only starting out her journey of faith.

When told she would conceive as a virgin (a scenario far more unlikely as it had never happened before), she responded with simple trust: “Be it unto me according to thy word.”

Faith does not require understanding every detail; it requires surrendering to the One who orchestrates every season and has set an impeccable timetable for the entire universe.

The Scripture reminds us that “to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

God’s promises carry within them their own appointed hour for fulfilment.

We cannot hasten them through human ingenuity, nor can our doubt thwart them.

What we can do about it is to choose whether we will wait with expectancy or in frustrated gesturing because of dumbness.

Habakkuk learned this divine truth: “The vision is yet for an appointed time…though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come” (Habakkuk 2:3).

Consider the farmer who plants in faith. He does not dig up the seeds a day later to check its progress.

He trusts the season and the process – plant the seeds in September and harvest will surely come at the right time, depending on the crop.

Paul echoes this wisdom: “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

Between promise and fulfillment lies the sacred space of trust.

As Victor Hugo observed, “nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.”

How much more unstoppable is a promise from the Almighty whose word cannot fail?

Every declaration or promise spoken over your life moves inexorably toward its appointed hour.

Your responsibility is not to manipulate the timeline but to trust the Timekeeper.

Tear up your own timetable and throw it in the dustbin.

Instead, say like the psalmist: “My times are in Your hands” (Psalm 31:15).

In God’s economy, timing is everything.

May this Christmas season teach us the truth that His timing is always perfect – always right on time – never too early and never late.