When I sat down for my devotion this morning I have to confess I was frustrated with God! I have been asking Him for some time now what exactly he wanted to teach us  when we finished the Messed Up World series. I pointed out to Him that the series finished this week (as if He did not know!). I wondered if He had noticed that I had been fumbling around with a number of ideas but as yet had no clarity. I reassured Him (good of me huh!) that I did know He always came through and I was not expecting this time to be any different. However right then I was a little stressed about the timing…….. I know I have preached so many times that God’s timing is not our timing but I still find it a struggle to live in that truth sometimes. Then God gave me a picture that really helped. I saw life as a progressive jigsaw.
…….. Now if you do jigsaws you know there are times when you find lots of pieces that go “somewhere around here” but you can’t see exactly where. Then suddenly you get one key piece and all those “somewheres” become “right heres.” The important thing is to be patient while waiting for the key. ………… and then God graciously gave me one such key.
I am excited that our next series will be entitled “Hope Floats”. (Yes it is a movie, I have seen it and enjoyed it but I can’t remember if it fits the message!) The theme of the series will be God’s promise that we can live in hope (Romans 15:4). However often that hope is like a balloon held under the surface of our lives by a net of our humanness! We will see how Jesus releases that hope in the lives of people He meets in the gospels. And we will discover how He can do the same for us beginning on August 24th with “Hope for the Confused,” a look at Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus!

So if you are feeling like you have a bunch of pieces but can’t quite make a picture pray consistently, hang on tight, and remember He is always on time and always faithful!