2 Chronicles 15:7 (NLT), “But as for you, be strong and courageous, for your work will be rewarded.”
Do you have times in your life when you feel that you are stuck in the mud? Things were going along pretty well and then suddenly you hit a roadblock and you can’t seem to get past it. We all hit those times in our life and the important thing to remember is you’re not stuck there. What you are experiencing is a delay. God uses a delay many times throughout our lives to do a work in us before we progress to the next step. Sometimes this delay is because you are not following God’s plan and He wants to get you back on track.
Take a look at the story of the Exodus and see how God delayed the Israelites to get them back on track before entering the Promised Land. God set the Israelites free from thousands of years of slavery in Egypt. God used Moses to confront Pharaoh and demand the freedom of His people. It wasn’t until God unleashed plagues upon the Egyptians that Pharaoh let the Israelites go. Even on their way out of Egypt, God had to perform one more miracle by parting the Red Sea so they could walk across.
Even though these miracles were performed right in front of their eyes, the Israelite’s still didn’t have complete faith and trust in God. Psalms 106:24 says, “The people refused to enter the pleasant land for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them.” Because of this they wandered the desert for many years before being allowed to enter the Promised Land.
There are a few interesting things in that story. First, as humans sometimes we can’t even trust what’s right in front of our faces. God performed miracle after miracle and they still didn’t trust He would care for them. Second, even when doubted by us over and over again, God may bring a delay but He will fulfill His promise. God is true to His word and will deliver on His promises.
So what God has promised you, what He has placed on your heart, will come to pass. But you have to stay in faith and trust that God will see you through. You have to believe that if He has spoken it, it will be done. As it says in Joshua 21:45 (NLT), “Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.”
Realize you are never stuck in your circumstance. Our God has promised you a blessed life if you follow His commands. Take a look at your current situation and see if there is an area where you are not showing enough faith and trust in God. That is the area God is trying to perform a work in you, to refine you, before allowing you to move forward. It’s your job to let the work be done in you while you are in the delay. Once finished a new and improved version of you will evolve.
2 Peter 1:3-8 spells it out for us, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Truth In Love! ~ Chuck