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If you have ever had a fever, you know that fevers are basically a whole lot of waiting for that moment when the fever breaks. You may have hours or even a day or more of discomfort as your symptoms work their course. And then, suddenly, the fever is done and you feel a sense of normalcy return. You may be tired, uncomfortable, sweaty, or weak, but you can tell that the fever has lost its grip and you are on the road to recovery.
So many times in life the challenge or the obstacle that faces you may appear unending, insurmountable, and vastly beyond your reach to overcome. And yet, just as suddenly as the enemy stepped in to oppose you, you reach a tipping point and suddenly you discover God moving things from all directions in your favor. Suddenly the complexity, the fear, the doubts, the anxiety, the stress, and the pain of the struggle releases its fiery grip and you can tell that you have survived the worst of it and victory is on its way.
The enemy wants you to believe that they are in control, that they determine your destiny, that they hold your life in their malicious grip and that you should just surrender and accept defeat. Maybe you are working on a big deal at work, and after investing time, energy, and resources above and beyond the usual effort the deal still falls through. Maybe you put together a presentation for investors and they don’t understand your vision and decide to allocate their capital elsewhere. Maybe you go in for your annual physical and the doctor says that you are facing something much larger than the slightly elevated cholesterol that you’ve known about for years. Maybe you’ve been single for so long that you are starting to believe there is no soulmate, no match waiting for you.
Whatever you find yourself waiting for today, know that as you wait, as you work, as you persist, as you continue there will come a time when God will suddenly show up and unleash a flood of favor the likes of which you have never seen before. If you choose to live with expectation, with hope and a future, with faith and confidence in the salvation that God has promised for you — if you are willing to face the enemy knowing that their time is limited, their success is only temporary and your victory in Christ is assured — if you are willing to fully embrace the destiny that God has placed before you, waiting expectantly and with dedication to the purpose for which you were created — to receive and experience love, goodness, peace, joy, abundance, health, well-being, confidence, vision, clarity, success, and super-natural blessings from God. If you choose life, if you choose God, if you choose love, if you choose health, if you choose goodness and mercy, faith and integrity, wisdom and insight, prosperity and salvation, then when you least expect it your waiting will suddenly come to an end and you will step into the victory that God has in store.
Imagine what it must have been like to be Abraham, remembering God’s promise,
“Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you.” – Genesis 12
Imagine years passing and decades passing and still no children, still no heir, still not a single evidence that God was going to fulfill His promise and provide a descendant from which that “great nation” could arise. Imagine the frustration of trying time and again, over and over to live the life that God had promised and still experiencing nothing, seeing nothing, receiving nothing. Year after year Abraham and Sarah grew older. Year after year the scientific likelihood of them conceiving a child became less and less. Year after year Abraham’s only heir was a loyal and trustworthy servant who managed his house. No son. No daughter. No legitimate descendant. No heir to receive that fulfillment of God’s promises and be the start of the great nation that would bless everyone on earth.
Waiting is not a passive activity like some people believe. Faithful, confident expectation is a pro-active pursuit of the vision that God has placed on your life combined with an acceptance of the timing that God provides. There are so many variables, so many people, so many influences involved in accomplishing God’s will that you cannot possibly grasp the full context of the role you have to play or even begin to see the optimal timing and connection for every event in your life. God, who knows all things and all people, who is present and observes everywhere all the time, and who has infinite and eternal wisdom and insight is the only one who can manage, direct, and guide the entirety of reality to achieve the best possible outcome of victory and eternal life for the people He created.
Abraham and Sarah weren’t without children for lack of trying. They weren’t waiting for an immaculate conception or a virgin birth. Abraham and Sarah were doing everything in their power (and even a few things that were not necessarily well advised) in pursuit of receiving the fulfillment of God’s promises. And yet, it wasn’t until Abraham was 100 years old that God finally fulfilled His promise and Sarah gave birth to Isaac.
And, when it comes to the timing of the birth of Isaac, we read in the Bible that,
“Although Abraham was very old, Sarah had a son exactly at the time God had said.” – Genesis 21
So, the next time you find yourself waiting, don’t turn waiting into defeat, instead convert waiting into confident expectation because when you least expect it, God is going to suddenly accomplish His purposes in you, God is going to suddenly fulfill His promises in you, God is going to suddenly flood you with favor and bless you beyond your biggest and best dreams.
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