God's Perfect Timing

The time is near for the Israelites to leave Egypt. Plague after plague has struck Egypt and God continues to harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will not let the Israelites go. It's hard to think about God hardening someone's heart but he did so with Pharaoh who refused to follow the one true God. And God did this " . . . so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord." (Exodus 10:1-2). He did this so that we would all know that He is Lord - the Egyptians, Israelites, their descendants as well as us. What an incredible testimony we have to learn from!

And so, here is my man Moses. My fearful-can't-speak-in-public beloved Bible character. Somehow Moses went from being hesitant to do all these things to becoming the spokesperson of God. He was transformed during this time. Was it because his faith grew as he witnessed God's awesome power? Was it because he jumped in and started doing the work God asked him to do and grew from experience? Something happened and Moses went from a baby faith to walking by faith alone. Hebrews 11:27 says, "By faith he (Moses) left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible." Ah, you gotta love Hebrews!!!!

Maturing in my faith can be a rather long process as it seems like I take 5 steps forward and 20 back. It can be frustrating at times as I want to be ahead of where I'm at. But then, when I start moving forward after taking many steps backwards, I realize that God knows me so well that He knows when I'm ready for the next step. I love Psalm 37:23-24, "If the Lord delights in a man's way, He makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand." In the margin of my Bible I wrote this quote, "I shall never be able to go too fast if the Lord is in front of me; and I can never go too slowly if I follow Him always, everywhere."

God's timing is always perfect just like it was perfect in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. God needs to grow me further like He grew Moses into become the man he became. I pray that I will have a willing heart to follow God and allow Him to train me so that when the time is right I will be ready to serve Him where He needs me.

Krista Jones
1.21.08