ARE YOU WAITING?

Jesus could have come and healed Lazarus when he was still alive.
Instead, He waited to raise him from the dead when he was already in his grave.

God could have made David become king the day after he was anointed.
Instead, He waited 15 years to rise to the throne, many of those years spent fearing for his life, hiding out and running away from his own father-in-law.

God could have spoken to Moses in the desert about sending him to help free His people from slavery 40 days after he ran away from Egypt.
Instead, He made him wait for 40 long years.

God could have gotten Joseph out of prison one year after he was sentenced there.
Instead, he was stuck in that dungeon for 10 years before he was finally set free.

God could have given Abraham the son He promised him when he was still a young man.
Instead, He waited until he was 100 years old and because of physical reasons would have a more difficult time conceiving at that age.

God could have answered prayers and met the needs of these men of God much quicker, but He didn’t.
He made them wait instead.

And He often makes us do the same.

He makes us wait for healing to come after we’ve been praying for years and there is no sign of recovery. He makes us wait to fulfill His call in our lives after He puts the desire and passion in our hearts to serve Him in a certain way. He makes us wait to give us the desires of our hearts, whether it’s a baby, a spouse, or a new job. He makes us wait for direction when we are stuck at a dead end and we don’t know where to go or what to do.
He could answer that same prayer that you’ve been praying for years every night in a millisecond. That same prayer that has been bringing you to tears.
That same prayer that the longer that it goes unanswered, the more it makes you question whether He even hears. But He doesn’t.

He kept Moses in a desert for 40 years.
Joseph in a prison cell for 10 years.
Abraham without a child for 100 years.
David on the run for 15 years.

And maybe He is keeping you right where you’re at for the same reason He kept these men for so many years: to build your faith. To build your faith in a dungeon cell, during the valley in your life where it’s too dark to see and too hard to believe. To build your dependence on Him when you are barren and empty to see if He is truly all you desire and all you need. To see how well you will trust and serve Him when you are still stuck in the background somewhere, doing seemingly nothing too significant for Him. To build your trust in Him when the storm keeps raging, the battle keeps going and breakthrough and victory doesn’t seem near.

See… sometimes the waiting period of our lives is the most important time in our life. It is during this period when nothing seems to be happening, when prayers seem to go unanswered, when God seems so far away that the most spiritual growth takes place in our lives. That we learn to become more like Him. It is during this time that we build spiritual “muscle”. That we grow in faith. That we learn to only depend on Him.

What are you waiting for today?

What longing do you have that seems so far from ever being fulfilled?

What prayer do you keep on praying that seems to never reach God’s ears?

I want to remind you that God is not deaf to your prayers. He is not blind to your constant tears, to your desires, and to your needs. If He is making you wait, there is a very good reason for it. If He is telling you “no” today, maybe it’s because He has a better “yes” waiting for you tomorrow. If He is keeping you in the same place you’ve always been today, maybe it’s because He’s helping build your faith before you enter your Promised Land tomorrow. If He is not healing you or bringing you victory today, maybe it’s because you will have a greater testimony when He waits to help you be an overcomer tomorrow.

Wherever you are at today know that God is right beside you and that there is a purpose for you. Even if that purpose is to wait. Don’t give up just because you don’t see anything happening today. Maybe there is nothing physically happening that your eyes can see but there is definitely something happening in the spiritual realm as you learn to rely on Christ. Don’t allow your waiting period to make you hopeless about what tomorrow will bring. Instead, let it build your faith and give you even greater hope for what God has prepared for you. He made some of the greatest men of faith wait. Don’t be discouraged if He makes you wait as well. He will come through for you, just like He came through for them.

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” ~~ Psalm 27:14

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Forgetting the Past and Looking Forward!

I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. ~ Philippians 3:13

Some people maybe you are one of them. Where you can’t seem to be able to reach forward because you are continually looking backwards. Where your focus is on your past sins, past mistakes, past failures, and past hurts, but God does not want you and I to live in the past, but rather focus on the future.

God is in control of your future, and you don’t need to worry about a thing. It’s simply a matter of walking by faith, not by sight. But will you believe? Are you ready to take that next step? Jesus is calling you to higher ground. He has something better prepared for you up ahead. Leave all of those worries behind and start stepping toward it. Receive the gift that He wants to give you. Embrace His love. He is the Blessed Hope, and will not disappoint those who remain hopeful in Him.

Trust and Believe!!!

We cannot know the thoughts and intents of God, but we can trust that He loves us and that His way is perfect to accomplish His will. We are mere sinful humans without the foresight to know what His will accomplishes or to know the whys of our sufferings. We must endure, because we have placed ourselves in the palm of His hand so that He might exercise His will over us. Have a wonderful day putting your complete trust in the Lord.

“Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.” ~~ Isaiah 26:4

Trusting in God is one of the hardest things to do as a Christian. Trusting in God is vital to our spiritual lives. When we open up to our Lord in belief we will experience the amazing ways that He opens up to us. The more we trust Him the more He rewards us and reveals Himself to us. When we trust in God to come and make our life new, we need to be ready for Him to come and do just that. If we want to see miracles, we need to believe in miracles.

If we want to see God move in our lives, we have to trust Him to move in our lives. When we truly trust the Lord with all our hearts, we finally give Him the freedom to minister to us without getting in His way. We are retaining control over our situations by not trusting Him.

God asks the hardest thing from us; to abandon our common sense, close our eyes to everything around us, put aside our knowledge of earthly reality and logic, and trust Him. He is trying to help us grow in our faith, and in order to do that He continues to raise the bar a little bit at a time. As we grow spiritually, He asks us to believe more. God wants us to trust Him and continue trusting Him. We need to continue trusting regardless of what is going on around us, even if things seem hopeless. We need to go back to that place where we have unquestioning faith and believe as a child. God wants to give us a full and abundant life, but He only asks for us to believe in Him.