Nougat 17

What does it mean for us to be in the right place at the right time? Is it always as it should be? Consider today’s Holy Nougat

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Right Place at the Right Time

Words matter. According to the wording of the text in Matthew, Jesus was in the right place at the right time. For we’re told that Under God’s Spirit’s leading, He was in the wilderness for the sole purpose of being tempted. Talk about an extreme rite of passage! But it wasn’t quite a rite of passage.

As God, Jesus was beyond temptation. But Jesus’ human side, as proven by Adam and Eve’s story, was extremely capable of yielding to temptation. For many of us, we fall into temptation without even thinking about it. Remember David said that we’re born in sin and shaped in wrong-doing (see Psalm 55), after he was caught out for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (see 2 Samuel 11). [Before we get distracted, that passage says, ’at the time kings went out to war…’ David sent his men and stayed home].

For Jesus, it was not only the right time and place because we’re told so; but it has to do with God’s Purpose and Timing. God needed Jesus to face and overcome temptations just as humans, in keeping with His nature, ’God with us’. Whatever we face, we know that a God is with us and God understands the emotional impact, as Jesus also encountered such. Further, we recognize that Jesus’ ability to overcome encourages us that we might also overcome life’s many temptations.

If Jesus resisted going in the wilderness then because He was tempted, He’d have been in the wrong place at the right time. Had He been there and the devil wasn’t supposed to show up, He’d have been at the *right place at the wrong time*. But He went, and as always, the event of our souls awaited Him. But He overcame. Hallelujah.

Siblings in Christ, we too have to be aware of God’s Purpose and God’s Timing. Sometimes the glitter isn’t God’s gold … leaving us in the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the right time. Alternatively, we are right on time – within God’s will – though we find ourselves asking God to help us see how the negative can become a point for good rather than evil. Perhaps God’s showing us we have the capacity to overcome evil or to live positively in a situation.

I pray that we can discern God’s Timing, not excusing our own behaviors or choices, but recognizing that we have an example in Jesus Christ, rooted in Scripture.

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May all we seek be found in Christ