This week’s devotions based on Week 5 “He Shall Be Called: Jesus” (CLICK HERE!)
Today ends another year. In a few hours, 2024 will be relegated to history.
Was 2024 a good year for you (however, you want to define “good”)? Was 2024 a bad year for you (again, however you want to define “bad”). Was there something you hoped would happen in 2024 but never did? Are you hoping that event will happen in 2025?
We can all look back at periods of our life where we are waiting for something to happen.
Perhaps it’s wanting to be out of grade school, high school, or college? Maybe it’s waiting to find the man or woman of your dreams to marry. Maybe it’s landing the perfect job that fits your skills and your passion.
It can be hard to wait and hard to understand why something doesn’t happen in the timeframe you believe it should have.
Imagine if you were Adam…after 930 New Year’s Eves the one God promised to crush the head of the serpent never came. Imagine being Abraham and wondering for 175 New Year’s if the great nation he was promised had arrived? Imagine David, Solomon, the prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, or captives like Daniel or Nehemiah…wondering every time they flipped the calendar if this would be the year God would bring about the “consolation of Israel.” Finally a faithful believer named Simeon was given a promise that he would not die until he saw the fulfillment of the promised Messiah that had been given hundreds…thousands of years earlier.
To us it may seem like an eternity, but to God the passing of years is just a progression of his plan. The events of each year were not random acts of history, but putting all the pieces in place needed for the glorious event of Jesus, the Savior, being born for you and me and all people.
The Apostle Paul put it this way: Galatians 4:4-7 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
It was the set year, the set month, the set day, the set time that God had determined in eternity which he now played out in time.
Was it worth the wait? For sure!
For the moment that Jesus entered the world he went to work keeping the law of God perfectly (See Luke 2:21-40). He grew up. He went to the cross…for one purpose: To make you God’s child.
If you are one who trusts in Jesus as your Savior, God orchestrated a set time for that work of his Spirit to change your heart.
If God can work the events of time to bring you the promise of eternity, he will orchestrate the year ahead for your blessing and his glory. Close down 2024 today, but step confidently into 2025 tomorrow!
Apply: How has God worked in your life this past year? Do you see his hand guiding events for your blessing and his glory? How so?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gift of time, the gift of 2024. Forgive me for my failures to steward it always well. Give me perspective that you promise to work all for my good and grant me your blessings in 2025! AMEN.