Faith in the waiting

What if the reason God doesn't always break into our lives when we want him to is because it's not the time God has perfectly planned for us as part of his bigger story?

Zechariah had been going to the temple burning incense all his life. His wife had been barren for years and yet there was a day when an angel appeared and God broke in. THIS was the day and the appointed time Gabriel told him.

Sarah had been barren all her life but at the very time God had promised she conceived and became pregnant. It was a moment of great joy. Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me’

Why did God wait so long to fulfil His promise to Zechariah and Abraham & Sarah and many others? It was 39 years after the promise before Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Maybe God wanted to test them to see if they would continue to believe in his promises despite the delay... and we know along the way they did try to take matters into their own hands. 

The waiting is the hardest part and often there are questions we have no answers to. I have friends, faithful men and women of God who know God is good and kind and faithful to all his promises and who have prayed for and seen many healed around them and yet are still waiting for God to heal them and whether that is here on earth or in heaven they continue to lay hold of his promises. I look on and see their pain mixed with great faith and thank God for their example to me.

Our life is a tiny though important event on a massive timespan of eternity and as I was reminded recently in a preach, I am not the centre of the universe! i.e. God is not planning everything around me and my comfort and happiness. My story is part of his bigger redemptive story.  I love this verse in Deuteronomy 7:8 'He is unwaveringly good and faithful keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations'.  He has been working long before we were even born and will continue long after we have left this earth. It kind of puts it all in perspective doesn't it? 

What He delights in most is our trust that he IS who He says he is and He IS working out his purposes. We know the end of the story! 
But how do we maintain and sustain such expectancy against the tide of often opposing circumstances in our lives and in the lives of those around us?

Recently I felt God get my attention through a couple of phrases. They were 'Yes but' and 'What if"
and how they can mean something completely different according to the lens we're looking through, i.e. with the heart of an orphan or the heart of a son. 

As an orphan
In our disappointment and the waiting we can sometimes respond to God's promises in one of two ways. Though not outwardly maybe, but a nagging voice in our head keeps saying 'Yes but'... yes we know his promises are true and trustworthy and we may even remember that he has been good to us many times in the past but in this circumstance where I'm standing right now or where I've been standing for some time...maybe long term sickness, singleness, financial lack, a difficult relationship or barrenness... he hasn't been good to me, not yet! 
Or it maybe a voice that says 'What if'...what if I'm never going to see breakthrough or desires fulfilled? Satan has been sowing these lies since the garden of Eden when he threw Adam and Eve off course with “Did God really say"...implying that God is less than He is and that man is more than he is and calling into question God’s character and trustworthiness.

As a son or daughter
In our disappointment our posture can be different because we know who he is and who we are and instead of "Yes but" we are able to say "BUT God" because though our situation may not have yet changed, we are relying on his unwavering goodness and faithfulness. We are looking up in trust because we know that what may be impossible with man is possible with God. When we do this and posture ourselves in faith and dependence we can even start imagining and dreaming with God what the answers to our prayers would look like. I'm reminded of a mother who was told by the doctors that her baby wouldn't live who then promptly went out and bought him some clothes. Soon after her baby got better and went home with her!

The enemy wants to dilute our prayers through disappointment
During the waiting period keep bringing your disappointment to God. The Psalms are full of such examples. Don't give up or believe lies about God's nature and keep on trusting. In Isaiah 30:18 it says Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

Ask others to pray with you, we need others to keep speaking truth to us.  I believe when we live from the perspective of 'But God' and 'What If' it will cause us to pray differently and with faith
'Through faith and patience we inherit his promises' Hebrews 6:12