Prepare Your Heart: Christmas DevotionsCampione

Waiting for the Lord How many days are left until Christmas? Are you counting? Do you need more time to get ready, or are you young enough to be itching with impatience? It’s hard to wait, isn’t it? Sometimes I’m a very impatient person--I don’t like sitting around in doctors’ offices, standing in long lines, or crawling in traffic. How hard it must have been for the people of Israel to wait for the promised Messiah. As the centuries dragged on and their national fortunes sank, they must have been tempted to think that God had given up on his plan, or worse--given up on them. As the “B.C.” years came to an end, they had no king, no armies, and no independence. But--“When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Galatians 4:4,5). Our God is an on-time God. He showed that his Word could be trusted about the coming of the Messiah. Through faith in him, you receive the full rights of adoption into the royal family. You can trust his promises to love, help, and forgive you too.