MATTIE'S CHRISTIAN PAGES

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Chim'sWRITE
New Year Day 2001
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There is No New Year In Heaven!
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"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day
is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The
Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand
slowness."  2 Peter 3:8&9
 
There are few things as frustrating as facing a problem and praying
and praying and yet not seeing God act. It is discouraging to see
days run into months, and months into years without seeing any
answer. For some of us the advent of a new year might not be so
joyous because it means another year has gone without seeing God's
intervention. We had expected that by this time things would have
been different. Certainly God is never too early yet he is never
late. He only waits for his time to come.
 
Understanding how God measures his time is normally a problem for us.
Naturally being bound by time as humans, it will be difficult for us
to understand that God is not bound by time as we are. When God
speaks of timing he doesn't speak of time as we know it. There are
not calenders in heaven nor does God work with a clock! In heaven
today there is no new year, all there is, is God's program for now.
 
When the bible says "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like a day", it seeks to show us how time,
as we understand it, is irrelevant to God. Beloved, God has not
forgotten you, it's just that his time has not yet come. God totally
comprehends our situation. He can see even further than we can into
the implications of all that we are going through. And he cares. God
is not dragging his feet about our problem.
 
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand
slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but
everyone to come to repentance. "
 
This verse is important in understanding God's timing. Here we are
told that the reason why the Lord has not returned is because he is,
out of his love and wisdom, waiting for men to be ready. In the same
when God's timing has to do not with how long we have waited but in
our preparedness and the preparedness of things around us. When the
bible says "in the fulness of time" , it is refering to when the
reciepant of the blessing and the things around them were ready.
 
So God may be waiting for you! For you to be ready enough to recieve
the things he has promised you. Often we concentrate so much on
seeing our situation change that we never seek to hear what the Lord
may be saying concerning our lives. God will never want to give us
things that will destroy us because we lack enough character to
handle them. God many times would want to straighten out our lives
before he straightens out our situation. If we will begin to be more
interested listening and responding to God inspite of our unchanging
situation then we will surely speed up the coming of God's time.
 
I pray that this new year will bring you into the fulfillment of
God's purpose for your life in Jesus' Name.
 
 
That all the nations may praise Him,
Chimezie Onyebilanma
cross-cultural missionary with CAPRO in Togo.

To learn more about the cross-cultural missionary work of CAPRO Togo
send any email to caprotogo@bibway.com

To learn more about supporting missionaries please visit www.adopt-a-
missionary.org

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May all the nations praise HIM!