perseverance
When your future seems lost
Fear of the future
Have you ever felt like the future you long to step into is a million miles away?
As I entered month after month of job hunting in the midst of the Corona pandemic, I felt my future was lost.
The fog surrounding an uncertain future can do the following to us: it can make us have mood swings, feel incompetent, doubtful, skeptic, indecisive, depressive and fearful. Ultimately, it can create an actual crisis in our lives.
I knew the future would become my present because that's the nature of time.
I just didn't know if that future would be good. The 'in-between' felt like God had lost my address at times. To loose expectation in God is a dark place to live.
King David knew the pain of those dry and restraining seasons where we only get the manna we need for today but not the steak we desire.
He knew of wilderness experiences, both in his circumstances and in his soul:
'"He ground my teeth with gravel and made me cower in the dust. I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. Then I thought, "My future is lost, as well as my hope from the Lord" Lamentations 3:16-18 CSB.
Doubt about past decisions
Not only does the in-between test our trust in God. It can test our trust in ourselves.
For me, I started to doubt and judge previous decisions I had made. Ruminating and regretful thoughts spun around: "I would have avoided this pain and sense of being stuck, if only I had chosen another major, taken a shorter education or lived another place, ."
On and on the accusing voice went with second-guessing, forgetting the truth that Søren Kierkegaard addresses:
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards”
– Søren Kierkegaard.
It is sad when we dig up in doubt the decisions we planted in faith years ago.
We may not have seen the harvest of those seeds sown earlier in life yet but that is where "[...]we have need of patient endurance [to bear up under difficult circumstances without compromising], so that when you have carried out the will of God, you may receive and enjoy to the full what is promised" Hebrews 10:36 AMP.
Life demands patience of us, and patience only comes by daring to tolerate waiting.
It all comes down to trust. Trusting that the God who led us before will lead us again. Trusting that as we walk by faith, not by sight, we will be guided along the best pathway for our life.
What to do in the in-between
If you find yourself in the 'in-between' (and we often do in at least one area of life, hey?), then be encouraged with these verses:
"God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
to the woman who diligently seeks.
It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
quietly hope for help from God.
It’s a good thing when you’re young
to stick it out through the hard times.
When life is heavy and hard to take,
go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:
Wait for hope to appear.
Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.
The “worst” is never the worst."
Lamentations 3:27-28 MSG .
In the Amplified Bible, the same verse ends with, "It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke [of godly discipline] in his youth. Let him sit alone [in hope] and keep quiet, Because God has laid it on him [for his benefit]" (my emphasis).
I find it fascinating that when we lean into discipleship, including discipline, it is to our own benefit — the benefit of becoming beautiful and strong inside out.
Adversity is to be received as training ground for those who love God.
How do we train in the 'in-between', then? Good question!
The Lamentations-verses above mention a lot of action-related words/verbs:
- to wait passionately,
- to seek diligently,
- to hope quietly,
- to stick it out,
- to enter the silence,
- to bow in prayer.
As you keep coming back to practicing these verbs in your life, your King and God will do His part and roll back the curtains when the new scene of your life is ready to be revealed and played out.
Breakthrough in soul and circumstance
Through the ups and downs of trust - distrust - then trust again — in God and myself, I experienced what is written in Romans 5:4 TPT: "And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope" (my emphasis).
The times I waited with hope and smiled at the future, life was more enjoyable in the 'in-between'.
And you know what?
I got a job!
With the breakthrough, I discovered:
- God's grace over my imperfect waiting
- I was busy moving to the next chapter, God was not!
- God's timing is perfect.
Hope in the future
Remember, you have not disqualified yourself for a great future by any situation done by you or to you in the past.
Your future is not lost. It is safely placed in the hands of God:
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11 NIV.
The fogginess will eventually lift and breakthrough will come.
In the meantime, spend less time looking for clarity and reasoning as to why life is hard right now, and more time trusting the One who is the Way, truth and life itself!
I encourage you, do not give up believing for your bright future!
Don't stress out, and don't be so hard on yourself.
You're doing better than you think you are. God is right on time.
Love,
Sandra.
Your delivery has arrived
Have you ever been waiting for a package delivery?
When ‘track-and-trace’ updates me it's time to check my mail box for an arrived package, I get excited, and when the delivery is on time, it's just the best!
However, sometimes delays happen that cause anxiety as to when I'll end up receiving the product I ordered and is expecting.
The same anxiety can show up in our spiritual and emotional waiting room of life whether the delivery is something we're about to be given (like a package), something we're about to give birth to physically or spiritually or we're waiting for something or someone to deliver us!
For me personally, I'm waiting for the delivery of our baby who is due tomorrow! However, I don't know when that delivery will happen exactly so this bible-dive into what the scriptures have to stay about delivery and deliverance is timely for myself.
What kind of delivery are you waiting for right now?
It could be that you're waiting for restoration in a relationship, a healing in your body or a promise/ dream in your heart to be delivered to you?
Whatever the type of "'Your delivery has arrived'- email" you're waiting for, I believe we can do three things in the meanwhile to stay in hopeful expectation!
Metaphorically speaking:
- We can check our package order request to see if it's correct
- We can check the email spam filter to make sure the right message is reaching us
- We can check the order confirmation and promise the store has given us.
Let's dig deeper below.
1.Check your order request
The first thing I do when my package delivery is late, is to check my order to see if I got the right memo about the date and if I ordered the product to the right address.
I believe we can do the same when we're waiting in expectation for God to deliver something to our lives. We are encouraged to make our requests known to God, so what have you requested of God? Or what do you need to request of Him you've only wished for this far?
"And all the time you don’t obtain what you want because you won’t ask God for it! And if you ask, you won’t receive it for you’re asking with corrupt motives, seeking only to fulfill your own selfish desires" James 4:2 TPT.
When we "check our order" metaphorically speaking, we can make sure we've actually asked God and not only wished for it. We can also give God access to search our hearts to make sure we requested a delivery to our lives with the right motive. Sometimes, we might also already have received what we asked for but we haven't had eyes to see it because the delivery arrived in a different package than we expected it to look like.
One thing is sure. God is always active in our lives as these scriptures reveal. He is sending out orders and working for our good:
"God sends angels with special orders to protect you wherever you go, defending you from all harm" Psalm 91:11 MSG.
"He sends out his orders throughout the world; his words run as swift messengers, bringing them to pass" Psalm 147:15 MSG.
"He established the cosmos to last forever, and he stands behind his commands so his orders will never be revoked" Psalm 148:6 MSG.
God is in the business of sending special orders out to protect us, and what He orders for our lives will be impossible to change.
2. Check your spam filter
One of the more frustrating messages to receive when trying to deliver an email is this one: "Delivery Status Notification (Failure) I learnt that one of the reasons for this delivery fail is because the email is landing in a spam filter!
I've been reminded of the importance of having an internal spam filter in this season of waiting to deliver my baby into the world. An internal spam filter is helpful in sorting out unhelpful comments from taking root in my heart and mind.
Whether the negative comments have been about bad birth experiences, comments on the belly or others simply projecting their fears on me, my internal spam filter has helped me let the good opinions, comments and remarks stay and the negative ones go.
We can't put our hope in people's words to deliver us: "Give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain [a worthless hope]" Psalm 108:12.
When our spam filter is working, we set ourselves up for a win so only the authentic and real, honourable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind (Phil. 4:8 TPT) words gets to stay and get attention in the inbox of our hearts and minds.
Let your mental spam filter help sort what words to hold on to and which ones to let go of as you await in hopeful expectancy on your delivery.
Even when our own deliveries fail to be sent properly, we can rest knowing that God's deliveries to our lives never get lost in a spam filter. His deliveries are timely and we need open hands and hearts to receive the new He has for us:
"Is anything too difficult or too wonderful for the Lord? At the appointed time, when the season [for her delivery] comes, I will return to you and Sarah will have a son” Genesis 18:14 AMP.
3. Check the promise
To stick with the package delivery-example, I do check the order confirmation whenever my delivery is delayed. I make sure that what I think has been promised from the store is actually what the order confirmation-email says I can expect.
I believe the exact same principle goes for our relationship with God. When we haven't received what we've been waiting for, it can be helpful to go back and check what God actually promised? Did he put a date on it? He rarely does as His ways are not our ways. If your journal entry does not recount what He has specifically promised you in the area you're waiting for a delivery on, go to the bible to see what He has promised in terms of deliverance.
When I did a word-study on "deliverance", I found that God is the ultimate deliverer! He delivers us from death (Psalm 30:1), God delivers nations (Isaiah 27:1), God delivers justice (Hebrews 10:30) and He has delivered us from the consequences of sin (Ephesians 4:30). This general, big perspective on deliverance helps me wait on the specific deliveries!
Costly deliveries
I must admit, I certainly have my favourite delivery service! That would be free, express delivery right to my door! No cost, short waiting time and no hassle to pick up the package is such a joy.
However, this is not always how our packages arrive, and it's not always how our other deliveries in life come. For example, I don't expect my birth delivery to be with no cost and with no waiting time. I'm prepared that there will be a painful cost to pay in birthing my daughter but I trust it will be absolutely worthwhile and beautiful anyways.
Even if your spiritual/soul/physical delivery might come with a cost, know that God's presence will go with you. He will battle for you. You just need to stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you (2 Chronicles 20:17 NIV).
If He has brought you to it, He'll enable you to go through it:
“Shall I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord. “Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?” says your God" Isaiah 66:9 AMP.
Surprise deliveries
Another favourite delivery service of mine would be surprise deliveries. People have been kind in this pregnancy journey to surprise us with deliveries of clothes and baby gear we didn't expect to receive.
Jesus himself came as a surprise delivery through a virgin birth and what He continually does in people's lives around the world are surprise deliveries - the exceedingly, abundantly above our wildest requests-kind of surprises. He has done these surprise deliverances since he entered the scene as the prophet Isaiah prophesied:
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows— light! sunbursts of light! [...]The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants— all their whips and cudgels and curses— Is gone, done away with, a deliverance as surprising and sudden as Gideon’s old victory over Midian[...]For a child has been born—for us! the gift of a son—for us!" Isaiah 9:2 MSG.
I pray for the last three months of this year that you’ll receive surprise deliveries that would be the kind only God knows you're longing for; the kind that'll be infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination!
These kind of surprise deliveries energises us as we wait for full deliverance.
Full deliverance
While you wait on your delivery, know that the hope set before us as Christ-followers is not only the specific deliverance you're waiting for - it's the full deliverance of heaven in the not-yet kingdom where there will be no more tears and pain!
"All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance.
That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy" Romans 8:22 MSG.
Be encouraged! Deliverance is here already, deliverance is on it's way, and deliverance will come!
“Pay attention, my people. Listen to me, nations. Revelation flows from me. My decisions light up the world. My deliverance arrives on the run, my salvation right on time" Isaiah 51:4 MSG.
As you await your specific delivery, check out your order request, check your spam filter and check out God’s promise to you. He’ll provide for the costly deliveries, He loves to surprise you with His deliveries and He is a God who has secured your full deliverance through Jesus.
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