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Health & Fitness

Advent Perfect Timing in Weakness

“In Christ’s first coming, He implemented a rescue plan conceived in the mind of God before the foundation of the world.  He did not come to promote holiday cheer, boost end-of-the-year sales, or serve as the central figure in a nativity scene.  He came to save sinners.”*

The timing of Christ’s coming was perfect.  God had it planned from the beginning.  There were lots of things going on in the world at the time of Christ’s birth that made it perfect.  Politically, religiously, philosophically, and even linguistically, it was just the right time for the Messiah to be born.   God had this particular date marked on the calendar since time began because He knew that everything would be right.

Today I want to look at the religious climate when Jesus came that made it perfect.  The Jewish people had been waiting for centuries for the Messiah to come.  Ever since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, the people had been waiting for the Savior of the world to come and save them from their sins, and fix their brokenness.  As time went on, the prophets of the Old Testament began to reveal more and more about the coming of the Messiah.  They knew that that He would be born in Bethlehem, that He would be from the house and line of David, and much, much more.

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The people had waited, and prayed, and waited, and prayed.  They had been oppressed by foreign rulers, and by their own rulers.  They had been exiled, and come back to rebuild, only to be threaten again.  God sent Judges to help bring the people back to Him.  Through the Judges and leaders the people realized more and more that they could not fix themselves.  With each new king, foreign or native, they realized that there was only one real ruler who could save them.  Then for 400 years there was nothing.  No more prophecies, no more judges, nothing from God about the coming Messiah.  This period of time took place between the Old and New Testament and is called the Intertestimental Period.  For those 400 years God was silent.  Politically their world continued to deteriorate, but still God did not answer.  With the rise of the Roman government that controlled the entire known world, the Jewish people cried out even more under the oppression their suffered.  They spent their time studying, waiting, and praying.  They were ready to listen, ready to follow, ready for the Messiah to come and save them in a way they had not been before.

God often works the same way in our own lives.  There are times in our lives when we think we have it all together.  Everything seems to be going our way and our plans are working out.  Life is wonderful.  So, we don’t think we really need God.  When God comes and speaks to us, we may not hear because we are so caught up in everything going right that we only hear ourselves.  If we do hear, we often don’t really listen because when God comes to tell us something if often means our world may be shaken and we don’t want that.  When everything is going wrong, when nothing is work out, when we seem to have nothing left to depend on, that is when we are most open to God’s leading in our lives.  When we realize that we can’t fix ourselves or the world around us we turn to God because we know that He is the only one who can.  It is in our times of greatest need that we wait, pray, and listen for God, eagerly awaiting His movement in our lives because we know there is nothing we can do for ourselves.

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If you are at a place of great need in our life, if you seem to be at the end of your rope and don’t know how you can hold on, know that God is there.  It is in these dark times that God breaks into our lives with the light of Christ, all in God’s perfect timing.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:6

God bless, Rev. Liz Arakelian, www.LivingHoppeEC.org

*Why Christ Came by Joel R. Beeke & William Boekestien

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