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 A collective reflection on Hope, Peace, Joy, and LoveTuesday, December 3, 2024 |
| When The Time Is Just Right Galatians 4:4-5 Homemade Christmas delicacies and favorite family recipes are part of what makes this season so delightful and distinctive. My family had a few holiday candies that we were excited to anticipate eating and sharing in creating. Fluffy white divinity, semi-hard creamy caramels, and melt-in-your-mouth chocolate fudge were three I remember so well. In making each of these scrumptious items, I learned about “when the time is just right.” The special cooking thermometer was a vital tool for these creations. I’m told the exact temperature to reach and hold before taking the next step to stir, add ingredients, take off the heat, or pour into the pan. The cooking thermometer told us “when the time is just right,” and the process was ready for the next steps toward tasty completion. Don’t you wish you had a cooking thermometer that would tell you right when God was going to act, to show his power, to end your waiting, to restore, renew, reconcile your situation, and satisfy your hope in him? As a child I remember how hard it was to wait for the right time to take the next step toward finishing and eating that holiday delight. I hoped it would happen now, sooner, quicker, with less waiting and less delay. I had to learn that it would only happen “when the time is just right.” God’s masterful plans and provisions are revealed “when the time is just right.” As expressed in Galatians 4:4-5, “…God sent His Son (Jesus), born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship/full family status.” When? “…when the set time had fully come.” Our hope is what keeps God – his faithfulness and promise-keeping character – in the center of our waiting for what we need or desire from him until “the time is just right.” Our hope is in you, God. By Craig Cheney PRAYER FOR TODAY God, strengthen my hope in you. Remind me of all the ways you have faithfully acted to intervene, provide, protect, or restore when your set time for me had fully come. Thank you for your great faithfulness toward me. Help me trust you in hope for your right timing in the situations, needs, relationships, and desires I have in this season of my life. In faith, my hope is in you, my God. My hope is in your name…Father, Son and Spirit. |
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