John 3:16

Thoughts from Chad Smith

Dive Deeper

Waiting for the King
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“’But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.’ Therefore, He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the remainder of His kinsmen will return to the sons of Israel. And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. This One will be our peace.”

Micah 5:2-5a

Behind the Scenes (1)
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This passage is a really neat prophecy about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. Step back in history with me for a minute and imagine you are a Hebrew in the time of Micah. Micah was a prophet of God who lived about the same time as Isaiah. Like Isaiah, he is called by God to warn His people that the judgement of God is coming upon them. The nation of Israel had at that time (as well as in patterns before and after) turned from God and had failed to keep His commandments. Both the northern and southern kingdom had become corrupt and the worship of idols had infiltrated.

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The book of Micah is the record of Micah’s warnings from God. But littered amidst the doom of the coming judgement, Micah is given a promise from God that this punishment will not be forever. Our passage today is one of those promises and it points to Jesus, the coming Messiah. In this promise, we read that there will be a time of waiting, and that God will send His redeemer at a specific time.

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Now let’s fast forward a few centuries. Israel has been taken captive by the Babylonians and the Assyrians, they are slaves, robbed of their freedom, and taken from their land. The promise of a Messiah, a King to shepherd His people and bring peace back to Israel hangs over their heads. For centuries, the Hebrew people wait, praying for the day that God would send His promised Redeemer and restore Israel.

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I can only imagine the stories that would be told around a camp fire, quoting passages like this one and others that promised the Messiah would come. I can imagine the hope that would blossom any good teacher or powerful leader began to arise. I can imagine the superstition that would have surrounded the promise and the imaginative imagery that would have arisen as people throughout history awaited their King. The waiting would have been hard. It would have felt long. And I am sure the temptation to wonder if God had forgotten His promise would have been strong.

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But we know that God did not forget. In His timing, at just the right point in history, in just the right way, God sent Jesus. He was not what the people had come to expect. But He was exactly what God had always promised. He came to fulfill prophecies like this one and so many others.

Make it Real (1)
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We, like the early Hebrews, are often called to a time of waiting. Take a second and think through the stories of the bible. So often God’s promises are followed by a time of waiting. Abraham and Sarah were promised a child but were called to wait until God’s appointed time. Moses and the Israelites were promised a land but were called to wait in the desert for 40 years. David was anointed as King long before he ever took the throne. Over and over, God asks us to wait. But why?

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I truly believe that God calls us to times of waiting, not because He is cruel or He likes to punish us, but because He is so good. He gives us His promises to give us hope, direction, and meaning in our lives. But usually what is needed before we are ready to receive that promise is a time of waiting. And in the waiting, God is always working. He is working to equip us, to refine us, to develop us, and to prepare us. He never wastes a time of waiting. God is never absent or idle.

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This week, as we look at the time of waiting where all of humanity waited for its Savior, I want to challenge you to think about what waiting has produced in your life. How has God used a time of waiting to develop you, teach you, or grow you in a way that made you better able to accept the promise when it did arrive. Are you in that kind of waiting period now?

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No matter how long we are asked to wait on the promise to be fulfilled, we can always trust that God is good, that He never asks us to wait for no reason, and He is never idle in the waiting. How does this truth help you to be more patient in the waiting? How does it help you to see His hand at work in the waiting?

End in Prayer (1)
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Lord,

I hate to wait. But I know that if you are asking me to wait it is for a reason. You are good and Your promises are true. Help me to see Your hand at work in the waiting, to trust you with the waiting, and to participate with you in whatever you are doing in the waiting. Thank You, Lord,

Amen!

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“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”  

John 3:16

Behind the Scenes

Why? Why do bad things happen?  Why did God ‘allow’ that death, that poverty, that, that, that..?   

And then I read the passage where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”  Not all of us are parents (I’m not), but I know we can all sympathize with a parent who loses a child. No one would choose to lose a child, except here’s the thing:  God chose to give up His child for YOU, because He wants ALL OF US TO BE HIS CHILDREN.  I get chills thinking about it.  

Make it Real

It has taken me a long time to experience God for who He is, and it’s something I learn every single day, but I’ve noticed a shift in my heart lately towards Him.  I used to place blame on Him for things that happened in my life.  For things that happened against me.  For things that have happened to my friends.  For things I hear on the news.  Why didn’t He stop it?  Why didn’t He intervene? Why, why, why, oh God?  

Then a shift happened.  I began to understand better that there is a war. The enemy attacks not only our spiritual selves, but our physical bodies; however, with God on our side, we know that we can fight from a position of victory!  We will experience struggle, and things will happen that we cannot understand with our earthly, human lens.  

But let me just tell you this…we serve a God who gave his SON so that we may live.  When we grieve, He grieves.  When we hurt, He hurts with us.  When we feel like we are falling apart, He is there waiting to pick up our pieces.  He is not the one who inflicts pain in our lives, but He does walk us through it.   

It’s oftentimes difficult not to look beyond this time and space that we have here on earth.  God sees the bigger picture, and He sees what happens in the end even when we can’t.  This goes to show how much He loves us, and that we are His sons and daughters!!   When we don’t trust that He is a good God, it is almost us saying, “Thanks for giving us your Son to die on a cross…but that wasn’t enough for me.”  Let that sink in for a moment.   

Be encouraged today that you are in good hands, and you are heir to His Kingdom. He would do anything for you, even die for you.  Receive that today.  Give your burdens to Him.  He carries them for us so that we don’t have to.   

Ali Bair

Ali Bair

ACF Devo Team

End in Prayer

Lord, be with me today, that I can understand your love for me better.  Help me to see You for who You are.  Thank you Jesus, for dying on the cross for me.  Thank you that you carried my sins so that I don’t have to anymore.  Help me to live in that freedom today, I pray.   In your name, Amen. 

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