Are you waiting on God to fulfill a promise in your life?
Have you struggled in faith and wavered from assurance to despair until God reminds you of his calling? How many times have you gone through this cycle?
Why is having faith such a rollercoaster ride?
Why doesn’t God just open the doors and work on our time schedule and understanding?
Let’s address some of these questions.
Your first exposure of God’s calling and progression to this moment has been a process of faith.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 KJV
You thought you were the one who began to reach for God, but from the beginning, God has been drawing you.
Each step you have taken is one of faith, gently orchestrated to strengthen you for greater things.
The things you are not prepared for require experiences to develop character, stability, and maturity in your life.
We only need to look at the life of Abraham to realize how difficult it is to walk by faith. He was called out from his people and family to walk with God.
Yet we see he brought his nephew Lot. God had to take Abraham through a process before he and Lot parted ways. It was after this separation that God revealed greater promises to Abraham.
Abraham was promised that he would be the father of many nations. When God did not give them a son according to Abraham’s time frame, human reasoning led Sarah to offer Hagar as the means to fulfill this promise.
God allowed Abraham to go through the painful consequences of human reasoning. Hagar and Ishmael were a constant reminder of his failure to wait for the promises of God.
Abraham underwent an arduous process to bring him to the point where he staggered not at the promises of God.
Can you stand the process required to mature your faith?
We walk by faith and not by sight.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 KJV
We perceive reality as we experience life through the five senses: hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching.
God’s reality is different; He operates in the realm of faith. Faith is trusting outside of physical evidence.
Our heart is the driving force of our actions; it is the seat of our emotions.
But the Bible says our heart is deceitfully wicked; who can know it?
If we follow our heart, then we are prone to making judgments according to the fleshly senses.
How then can we navigate life?
God encourages us to ask for wisdom. He is happy to give it, but the man who doubts or wavers is like the sea driven and tossed. He will receive nothing from God
We are tossed about by life’s events when we don’t have concrete answers. The element of the unseen leaves us nothing to anchor to, creating instability and uncertainty. We make decisions on what we know or feel.
This is why we must walk by faith and not by sight.
When we give room to fear and doubt based on emotions and circumstances, we become unstable.
Feelings are fleeting. Circumstances change all the time.
What is real? Where do we find a solid foundation to build on?
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You” Psalm 89:14 AMP Version
“Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.” Psalm 104:5 KJV
When we try to act outside of God’s design, we look for validation through human reasoning.
Our confidence wavers because our emotions, whether positive or negative, undergo frequent changes.
So, how do we escape the deceitfulness of our hearts and the emotions that rob us of the promises of God?
Paul says, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?”
He is expressing his frustration at his inability to control his flesh. He said he does what he wouldn’t do and doesn’t do what he knows to do!
It’s all about controlling our will. We function in the physical world, driven by our emotions. Our feelings react to what we perceive through our senses and logic.
Paul said this method of operating brings death!
To know what to do but feel powerless to achieve it. Self-will leans toward self-preservation. Operating outside of faith excludes God’s reality.
I have faith in God and am so sure of his call. I know what he spoke to me and can see how his hand has guided me. Yet I continue to doubt his promise and will for my life.
Why? Because my human reasoning is based on circumstances. What I feel and see persuades me to forsake the unknown for the familiar.
It is easier to believe circumstances and emotions than to operate on what I know through the spirit!
I also want validation from my peers. When they don’t confirm what I feel in the spirit, I immediately question God’s will.
They didn’t call me or tell me what his will is, but I expect them to confirm it.
Timing is another enemy of the human condition. We are impatient and want life on our terms and timeframe. God is not regulated by our terms and timetable.
Moses spent eighty years in preparation for God’s commission in his life. When God sent him, there was no one to validate his mission! No one said, “Oh yes. That is God’s will for you.” He had to rely on his experience with God alone!
David, Joseph, Abraham, and even Jesus had to wait on God’s timing.
I had this dream once. I was walking on the bank of a river and knew I was to walk out into the midst of it. I was fine until my feet no longer touched the bottom. I was no longer in control but was swept away by the current. I was terrified!
God desires that we trust him as he guides us through life. Not having control requires faith, but being vulnerable is very uncomfortable. We need to trust his guidance and complete authority.
Oh, the frustration of being pregnant with promise and purpose, but agonized by the incubation and timing of God.
A pregnant woman has no control over what is taking place in the womb. She does not determine when the heart begins to beat or when the fingerprints are formed. She has no control over the emotional disposition of the child when it is born. Yet she trusts in the process.
We are brought forth as a creation of God, formed by his hand, birthed by his will, created for his pleasure. We must trust the process!
Somehow, we must mature beyond the influence of fickle emotions based on circumstances and human reasoning.
David said he had quieted himself as a weaned child. He learned to have confidence in God’s timing and direction. He knew he would be king, but he never did anything to grasp it; he waited on God.
We must always remember that God doesn’t get in a hurry. He will accomplish his plan for you if you stay in his hands and learn to trust him in faith.
“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, And he who formed you from the womb:
I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone,
Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;” Isaiah 44:24 KJV
We are in good hands, my friend! Walk the walk of faith, knowing that it is God who will complete his work in you.
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