At Just The Right Time

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." (Romans 5:6 NIV)

God has a right time for all things.  Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, God told prophets about His plans for the birth and life of our Saviour. At just the right time Jesus was born.  God was neither too early nor too late. 

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.” (Matthew 1:22-23 NLT)

God could have sent Jesus into the world the day after Adam and Eve sinned but it wasn’t the right time.  God loved us so much that He desired that we be reconciled to Him, which is why Jesus was born into the world at the time appointed.  By acceptance of Jesus’ earthly life, death and resurrection for our sins we are restored to fellowship with our Heavenly Father.  God wants us to come to Him willingly, not out of coercion.  God, through Jesus, will forgive, heal and restore us to new life, but we have to want it, ask for it, and receive it.  God patiently waits for us to turn from sin and surrender our lives of selfishness to Him, but He will not wait forever.

God has appointed a time for Jesus to return to earth and take all believers to heaven to live with him forever.  Many of us see the troubles and suffering in the world around us and wonder why God doesn’t do that today.  God’s patience in waiting is part of His overall plan to be fulfilled.  There are more people in our world today who will become believers in Jesus. God’s plan will be perfected for each current believer and also for the believers that are still to come.  What we need to do today is prepare ourselves for His eventual coming, even more than we need to get ready for 2016.

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.   In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.   And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.  (John 14:1-3, Revelation 20:12, 15 NKJV)

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