I just felt led to speak on something very personal to me that I feel is on time for you as well.

You’ve heard it a million times. I’ve blogged about it a couple of times as well. Dear God When? When will it be my turn? When will you come and do for me all the good things you have promised? How long will I be locked in this cycle of hearing a word, getting excited then dealing with my heart being sick from the pain of hope deferred?

You seek and seek. Sometimes God will reaffirm the promise. Other times He’ll just stay quiet. (Kind of like what I’ll do when my son keeps badgering me about something I’ve already promised him 🙂 .)

There’s hardly any consolation anyone can offer you. All you’re told is : Wait on the Lord.

In due season. (Gal. 6:9)

By faith and patience you will receive the promise. (Heb. 6:12)

Be of good courage. Wait on the Lord. (Psalm 27:14.)

All these things are true but you know this. You have memorized all the bible verses on patience. But yet the days seem to pass. And pass. And pass. And all you can think of is, maybe God forgot about me. Or maybe I heard God wrong. Or maybe I deluded myself into thinking God promised me this.

I won’t remind you about Abraham and Sarah. Or Joseph or Moses. Or David or Jesus. You’ve already read all those scriptures and seen all the social media memes.

The Bible says wait. The pastor says wait. All the songs say wait and your grandma even told you, “He may not come when you call him but He’s always right on time.”

Truth is you have to wait. There’s no getting around it. Waiting develops you. It tests you. It strengthens you. It grows you into who you’ll be for the very thing you’re waiting on that God has promised you you will have.

The question is how? How do you hold your peace and not lose your expectation – even in the face of disappointment after disappointment? How do you handle the frustration of disappointment and the gap between what God said or showed you and where you are now?

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Story time:

So back in 2013 I was newly saved and was in the process of allowing God to sanctify me and process me. I was dating someone who I thought was just wonderful (according to my standards at the time.) So I was talking to God in my prayer session one night and I felt him tell me to end the relationship. Now in my limited understanding I replied, “Why God? He’s the best man I’ve ever had. (Up until that point, he was.)

God’s reply was, “I have so much better.” I ended the relationship but not immediately. It wasn’t until he flipped out on me that I realized God was warning and protecting me from what I didn’t yet know. (Lesson: Obey God the first time.)

A year later (2014) and I received a clear word from the Lord about the man I was called to marry (not his specific name or face just the specifics of his calling and the work we would do together). I was sooooo excited. I was sure this would happen by the end of 2014. You couldn’t tell me I wouldn’t be married by 2015.

And then 2016 came and went. Then 2017. And 2018.

It’s 2019. I’m still waiting for that word to manifest.

Funny story – I was sooo sure I knew who the man was God was leading me to. You couldn’t tell me I didn’t know what God was doing. I almost almost almost made a move y’all… albeit a subtle one. But thank God for the Holy Spirit! I almost embarrassed myself being impatient. Maybe I’ll have the courage to tell that whole story one day 🙂 . (Lesson: God don’t need no help 😊.)

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Have I been impatient with the wait? Definitely. I’ve even been upset with God on occasion –  so much so that I’ve had to repent a few times. The wait gets real!

But one thing I’ve learned is that with the Holy Spirit inside of me, I already have the peace of Christ (John 14:27). The question is how do I allow it to reign inside of me (Colossians 3:15).

How? The best way I’ve found is by appropriating God’s promise and taking him at his word. It is the sword with which I fight. Daily.

So here’s what that looks like:

God said, “He shall keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on him, because he trusts in him” (Isaiah 26:3 paraphrased). So keep your mind on God. When God makes  a promise it’s easy to set our focus on the promise and forget to fix our focus on Jesus. See once you fix your focus on the promise then you risk becoming distracted and depleted, which is most likely why you are frustrated now. Allow God who made the promise to you to guide you through the process. More than likely it will take a significant amount of time before it actually comes to pass –  especially if it’s a life changing promise. So say to Holy Spirit, “help me keep my mind on you and in return I receive your peace.” Then daily: listen to worship music. Read and meditate on the word. Pray often.

The Bible also says (and this is my favorite), “As thy days are so shall thy strength be.” (Deut. 33:25). God’s promise in each day is whatever the day holds you have enough strength to not only handle it, but overcome it. What’s most interesting about this verse is the Hebrew word for strength is dobe’ which also translates to ‘rest’.

“As your days are, so shall your rest be.” So whatever the day holds, there is rest available to you.

What I love about Deut 33:25 is in verse 24 Moses says of Asher, “Let [Asher] dip his feet in oil. Your sandals shall be iron and bronze. And as your days are so shall your strength be.”

“Let Asher dip his feet in oil…”  His feet are anointed for the journey. Anointed to endure and overcome.

“His sandals shall be iron and bronze..” – Iron and bronze denote strength and are used to build gates and strong structures. They are impenetrable. They do not wear out.

Ask God for the blessing of Asher and believe by faith you have received it. Confess it over your life daily by replacing Asher’s name with yours.

And then there’s the very famous, “They that wait on the Lord shall find new strength.” (Isaiah 40:31.) So if you are weary God will put his strength in you so you are able to endure. Ask him to. Say, “Holy Spirit, put your strength in me as I wait on you. And I believe by faith that I have received it.”

Always remember that just because God shows you the future, he doesn’t disqualify the present. So keep doing the last thing he told you to do (or start if you haven’t yet.) You won’t be able to bypass the process or skip any steps.  Once you occupy your time and mind with God and his work (or instruction) and as you stay in communion with him each day, waiting becomes easier because He will keep you at peace and fulfilled.

Sometimes waiting produces the friction necessary to develop your faith. So a little frustration is normal. Don’t numb it. Feel it and allow it to propel you into action by clinging closer to God.

You are in today. Get out of tomorrow. Jesus commanded us not to worry about tomorrow (Matt 6:34). And that is the reason you are frustrated because you are living in tomorrow while neglecting today. What you probably haven’t considered is that the promise God showed you is the ‘end’ and its outcome is tied up in the details of today. You can’t skip any steps or else you won’t get there.

No matter what you do you cannot rush God’s timing – not if you want God’s results. Sure you can go and do your own thing – but you’ve already done that. The last thing you tried left you desolate and broken and embarrassed. You swore if God got you out you would wait on him. So wait. Don’t go back down that road again.

Remember the last time God came through for you? Wasn’t so long ago was it? Command your soul to bless the Lord. The God who promised you is faithful and He will do it. (1 Thess. 5:24)

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Allow me to pray a prayer over you and repeat it as often as you need it. I pray that as you read it revelation will hit you and the peace of God will flow through you:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace because you believe in him.

I pray over you the blessing of Asher that you shall have rest and strength for the journey to which you are called.

May you realize that the blessing God promised you is sure and as his word prospers in the thing for which it is sent, so his word is now prospering in you even as you wait for him.

May you understand that what God has promised you is a generational curse breaking blessing. By you curses are broken off of your family line and by you the generations to come shall be blessed.

May you recognize that you are the Joseph and the Moses of your bloodline. You are the David of your generation. The blessings of Abraham rest on you.

May God exceed all your expectations with the manifestation that is about to hit your life. May you rejoice and be glad and like the children of Israel proclaim:

“This is our God, we have waited for him. Now let us rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9).

Selah.