Has It Been Forty Years Already?

Daily Reading:  Acts 7

Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. (Acts 7.30)

Devotional Thought: When Stephen makes his case before the Sanhedrin, he doesn’t answer the charges directly nor does he attempt to defend himself.  He gives them a history lesson!  That is a lesson to you and me: Remember God in your yesterdays and you will find him in your todays. 

That's hard after forty years, isn't it?  "When forty years had passed…"  Forty years? 

Moses had seen himself as the deliverer of his people.  As a young man he had been convinced that God was going to use him to free the Israelites from the Egyptians.  But, in his zeal, he took things into his own hands and killed a man. Though he was defending a fellow citizen, the law didn’t see it that way!  That action caused him great trouble, and he had to flee for his life.

Was the plan of God thwarted?  Forty years is a long time to wait.  Moses was eighty years old at that point.  He must have felt that he had ruined his chances, missed his call, and wasted his life.  But God had other ideas.  Forty years is nothing to God.  He had not forgotten Moses in all those years.  He had kept his eye on him.  When the time was right – when Moses and the situation were both ready – God appeared in fire!  The promise of God was resurrected and the plan of God revealed.

What about you?  Are you waiting?  Do you feel that time is slipping away?  Do not despair.  Your God will come in fire!  Hold on dear child!

Prayer: Lord, whether after forty years or forty days or forty minutes, with the Psalmist I pray, "Behold, I have come... I delight to do your will, O my God."  Come.  Reveal yourself to me in fire.  Use me to accomplish your will, for your glory.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 71:1-8

1 In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame!

2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me!

3 Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.

5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.

6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.

7 I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.

8 My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.