TRUSTING GOD
In God’s Perfect Timing
Lee Warren
CBN.com –
Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll
work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
-- Genesis 29:18
Have you ever met someone at a social gathering and the sparks
flew? You noticed not only the color of that person’s eyes
but also the sparkle in his or her eyes that seemed to invite
you to explore that person more deeply. That’s what happened
between Jacob and Rachel. Genesis 29:17 says that Rachel was lovely
in form and beautiful. Jacob fell so hard for her that he was
willing to work for her father for seven years just to marry her.
If you were presented with Jacob’s situation, would you
have worked for seven years for the one you loved? Think back
to what you were doing seven years ago. Were you working at the
same job you are now? Attending the same church? Courting the
same person? Our lives change a lot over a seven-year period,
don’t they?
Imagine what Rachel must have felt like. She found the man she
wanted to marry and then had to be around him often over the next
seven years without being able to marry him. She must have struggled
with doubts about whether they would ever marry. Then, when the
time finally arrived, she must have been devastated to find out
that her father had tricked the man she loved into marrying her
sister, Leah.
What Rachel could not possibly have understood at the time was
that God would eventually bring the Savior of the world through
the bloodline of Jacob and Leah. Jesus descended from a marriage
that was based on deceit—at least on an earthly level—but
God had bigger plans. Rachel eventually married Jacob in God’s
perfect timing.
God is orchestrating events in our lives to bring himself glory.
Like Rachel, we don’t know God’s timing for our future,
but we can trust that just as he knew what he was doing with Rachel,
he knows what he is doing with us.
Digging Deeper into Genesis 29:18
1. Have you ever fallen in love with somebody only to have God
tell you to wait for marriage?
2. Did you question God’s timing? Explain.
3. What did you do during this period of waiting?
4. Did you ever think about the big picture? That God was at
work orchestrating the events of your life for his glory? Or were
you more self-focused? Explain.
5. How can this verse change the way you handle future relationships
if God tells you to wait for marriage?
Excerpted from Single
Servings: 90 Devotions to Feed Your Soul by Lee Warren.
Used by permission of Fleming H. Revell, a division of Baker Publishing
Group, copyright © 2005. All rights to this material are reserved.
Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval,
published by other media, or mirrored at other sites without written
permission from Baker Publishing Group. Visit the publisher's Web
site at www.BakerPublishingGroup.com.
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