Although God sometime tarries, He declares, "I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it" (Isa. 60:22). But still the anxious heart sighs, "Is it time, LORD? Will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?" But as Jesus said, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority" (Acts 1:6-7). We are left waiting for ultimate God's answer: His glorious coming to fulfill our salvation.
Living in the "already-not-yet" state of redemption is a soul-building venture that helps us to acquire the precious middah (quality) of patience: "In your patience possess ye your souls" (Luke 21:19).
In Modern Hebrew the word teshuvah, often translated "repentance," also means "an answer." It is the mind's turning to a sheilah, a question, attending to it with honesty in the pursuit of truth.
Often trials in our lives function as God's question to us, and we are asked to answer with the teshuvah of settled faith.
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