"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." - 1 Peter 1:3-5
Hmmmm. "Faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:5)
Do you believe in God's time and in God's timing?
I went to a hospital yesterday. When I got to the room of the person that I'd come to see, she kindly said that it was not a good time and asked be to come back at another time. In essence, it wasn't a good time for them, but God's timing was still in play.
No sooner had she said it wasn't a good time and, hmmm, my daughter called at that very moment and asked "if it was a good time?" Well, now, all of a sudden, it was the perfect time.
And no sooner had my daughter finished sharing with me and, hmmm, I come to an intersection of two halls where there's about twelve feet to "bump into somebody". And what do you know? The very person that I was going to call when I got to my car was miraculously right there in that intersection and asked "if it was a good time?" Well, now, all of a sudden, it was the perfect time.
And no sooner had my friend finished sharing with me and, hmmm, I leave the hospital building and come to an intersection of two sidewalks where there's about twelve feet to "bump into somebody". And what do you know? Right there in that intersection is someone I kind of know from our community but we recognize each other and she asks "if it was a good time?" Well, now, all of a sudden, it was the perfect time. And she tells me about her parents being in the hospital there and her teenage daughter's health concern. We talk. We pray.
I go to my car and make a call to someone about helping me help another person who's down on their luck and ready to "throw in the towel," if you know what I mean.
Well, I'm still in the hospital garage when I finish the call, and no sooner have I hung up and I get an email from our church secretary saying the person I'd bumped into twenty minutes before had looked up our number and called our church and said they didn't have a church home and asked if I had time to go back in the hospital and visit her parents, who were in two separate rooms. Well, all of a sudden it was the perfect time.
So, I've gone back in, and I'm first visiting with her dad, and right before I ask to pray, the other daughter comes in, so we all pray together, and they're both so amazed at the timing because of what this second daughter then shares has just transpired. I smile and say something about God's perfect timing.
So then I walk down the hall to visit with the mom of the two women, and, as you'd guess, she's amazed because she'd almost given up because she'd been in there for almost two weeks and no one had visited her except her two daughters and she says something about perfect timing, and I smile, and we pray, and she smiles like she's the happiest person in the world.
And as I'm leaving her room, I have this sense that I should go down this third floor hall to check on the woman that I came to see at this hospital to begin with. And I'm sure you've now guessed that when I got to her room and called out her name to ask if now was a good time, she said, "Oh, it's the perfect time! Come on in!"
So I ask you as I did at the beginning, "Do you believe in God's time and in God's timing for your life?" I pray so, because God's timing is perfect.
Praise God!
(For an archive of "Day of Praise", please visit my daughter Calley's website at http://dayofpraisepc.blogspot.com/?m=1)
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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