When the Path Is Unseen

“I’m so confused
I know I heard you loud and clear
So, I followed through
Somehow I ended up here.”
— Read more: Hillary Scott - Thy Will Lyrics | MetroLyrics

I love these lyrics from the song "Thy Will Be Done." They put words to the feeling of confusion we've all had when we've followed God in obedience and then ended up in a seemingly impossible situation. Here, Lord? This can't be right.

The Israelites felt the same way. They followed Moses, God's chosen man, out of slavery and into freedom. They were headed to the Promised Land, but their journey wasn't as smooth as they expected.

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God took them a peculiar route that eventually left them trapped between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. When the Israelites saw they were trapped, they panicked, as we all tend to do when we're out of options and realize we have zero control over a situation. They asked Moses in bitter resentment, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness?" (Ex. 14:11). I've certainly questioned God in this way before, wondering why He would lead me out of one wilderness only to lead me into another.

Of course, we all know how the story of the Red Sea ends, and it didn't end with God abandoning the Israelites and leaving them to die in the desert. Instead, God miraculously parted the waters and the Israelites walked through to the other side on dry ground. Even though they couldn't see the path out of the wilderness and into freedom, the path was there the whole time, and God was waiting for just the right moment to reveal it.

I love how the psalmist put it: "Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there!" (77:19, NLT). A pathway no one knew was there. The path for you out of your wilderness may be hidden, and may need a miraculous act of God like the parting of a sea to be revealed, but the miraculous is God's specialty. He'll do what is necessary — when it's necessary — to reveal the path to you. In the meantime, rest, knowing that even though the path remains unseen to you, it's not unseen to its Maker.

A quote from the Puritan preacher Jeremiah Burroughs is one that I have gone back to dozens of times. It gives us a little glimpse into why God often lets our circumstances reach the point that they seem unsolvable — namely, so He can solve them and get the glory. Save this quote and remember it when you're discouraged and can't see a way out of your situation.

“We never consider that God can open the eyes of the blind with clay and spittle, he can work above, beyond, and even contrary to means. He often makes the fairest flowers of man’s endeavors to wither and brings improbable things to pass, in order that the glory of the undertaking may be given to himself. Indeed, if his people stand in need of miracles to bring about their deliverance, miracles fall as easily from God’s hands as to give his people daily bread.”
— Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

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Hope and Disappointment

“No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame.”
— Psalm 25:3, NIV

Elisabeth Elliot wrote, “My faith is to rest not in the outcome I think God should work out for me; my faith rests in who God is.” I read this quote at a time when we were launching a new product at work, and it was getting off to a very slow start. I found myself saying to God, “I thought this idea was from You! Why would you set me up to fail?” These words revealed that my faith rested in the outcome I was counting on God to give me, and not in who God is.

When our faith rests in the outcome of an external circumstance, we can be sure that we’ll be “driven and tossed by the wind,” like the doubter James describes (1:6), because we have nothing steady to which we can anchor our hope. Are you single and hoping to be married? Are you the mother of a prodigal, hoping for his or her return? Are you suffering from an illness and hoping for healing? Hoping in and of itself isn’t wrong; in fact, God Himself commands us to hope. But He never tells us to hope in a specific outcome; He tells us to hope in Him: “Those who hope in me will not be disappointed” (Isaiah 49:23, NIV, emphasis added).

We’ve all experienced the pain of disappointment, so how can God promise that if we put our hope in Him, we won’t be disappointed? Because even if something doesn’t work out the way we’d like it to, we can be completely confident in one thing: our sovereign God, who has the whole world in His hands, is also holding us. And everything He brings our way (or mercifully withholds) is for our ultimate good. As David sang to the Lord, "You are good, and what you do is good" (Psalm 119:68). Bottom line. End of story.

We must remember that circumstances do not reveal what's true about God. God has already revealed what's true about Himself in His Word, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change, ever. Every circumstance, then, has to be viewed through the lens of the unchanging character of God, and not the other way around.

In the Book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were brought before the Babylonian king because they refused to bow down to his golden statue. Listen to what the Hebrew men said when faced with the threat of being burned alive: “If the God we serve exists, then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up” (Daniel 3:17-18, emphasis added).

“But even if He does not rescue us…” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew God was sovereign and could intervene at any moment to rescue them, but that’s not where their faith rested. Their faith was in God Himself, and they would obey Him regardless of the outcome.

Are there situations in your life where you’re putting your hope in a certain outcome instead of in a good God who loves you? Ask God to redirect your hope so that it rests on Him, the One who will never disappoint.

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How to Be Still and Know

“Be still, and know that I am God.”
— Psalm 46:10

I'm a fixer. I like to find solutions to problems, and I like to find them quickly. So when a difficult circumstance comes my way and I've exhausted all my efforts trying to fix it, I can easily panic at the realization that I have no control.

I just read the other day that for most Americans, our motto is, "Don't just stand there — do something!" But the article went on to say that oftentimes God brings us into situations where we reach the end of ourselves, and He says to us, "Don't just do something — stand there!" Or in the words of Psalm 46:10, "Be still."

Being still in the middle of a trial is so hard, but sometimes we honestly have no other option. And God doesn't just command us to be still and that's the end of it. No, He commands us to be still and know ... know that He is God. It's a command followed by a promise. In other words, the promise that God will be God is the reason why we can be still.

The Hebrew word translated as "be still" in Psalm 46:10 means “to let go,” “to be weak,” and “to relax.” It comes from the same root as the Hebrew word for doctor. But what does relaxing have to do with a physician?

Those of us who aren’t trained in the medical profession go to those who are when we realize we’re facing a health issue beyond our knowledge and well out of our control. We don’t mind relaxing in the hands of a trained professional because we know he or she is much more capable of solving our problem than we are.

In Psalm 46:10, God told the psalmist, who was in the midst of chaos and confusion, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The command to “be still” is not one of indifference; it’s one of complete trust and surrender, which takes active faith. God was essentially saying, “Relax in my sovereign hands and know that I am good, loving, and trustworthy. You’re safe with Me. I have everything under control.”

If you're in a seemingly un-fixable, never-ending trial, and you've done everything you know to do to get out of it, God isn't sitting up on His throne telling you to do more. Instead, He's inviting you to be still — to let go and to relax — and to let Him take care of everything.

Today, choose to release control into the hands of God, knowing He's for you. "If God is for [you], who can be against [you]?" (Romans 8:31).

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The Waiting Place

“You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.”
— Dr. Suess - "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"

Dr. Seuss's "Oh, The Places You'll Go!," which describes the twists and turns of life's journey, is so insightful. (I've linked to the whole thing here.) There's one stop on the journey I want to talk about today. It's the portion I excerpted above that describes that dreaded, "most useless" place — The Waiting Place.

Waiting can certainly feel useless, can't it? During long periods of waiting, not much seems to be going on in the way of our deliverance. Everything comes to a standstill in our world, and yet the world around us keeps moving on. The blessed keep getting more blessed, but we remain stuck.

That's how it can feel, can't it? But it's not true.

Everyone goes through seasons of waiting, and waiting on God is anything but useless. In fact, it's probably one of the most character-building experiences we can go through in this life. But how we wait is what will determine how peaceful or miserable our stay in The Waiting Place will be.

One of my favorite Scripture passages comes from Lamentations 3: "The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good to wait quietly for deliverance from the Lord" (vv. 25-26). The Hebrew word translated as "wait" in verse 25 means 3 things in addition to waiting. It means "to expect, to look for, to hope."

These 3 verbs (expect, look, hope) show action on our part. So one thing waiting on the Lord doesn't mean is resignation: "Well, clearly God isn't going to give me what I'm asking for, so He can just do whatever He wants." Or, "I've been hoping for this for so long and still nothing. I need to stop hoping altogether so I don't get hurt even more." Resignation is what happens when someone gives up, but giving up is not an option for the one who actively waits on the Lord.

Instead, the waiting one should be like Habakkuk, who said, "I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint" (2:1). Habakkuk wasted no time in climbing to the top of the watchtower to see how God would answer. He knew it was a matter of when, not if.

Each day as we pray for whatever it is we are waiting for, we should "bring [our] requests to [the Lord]," climb the watchtower to look for His answer, and "wait expectantly" (Psalm 5:3). We aren't waiting well if we aren't waiting with expectation, looking eagerly in the distance to see when and how God is going to answer our request.

In fact, biblical waiting requires expectation — if it doesn't have that, then it's resignation, not waiting.

Photo by ipopba/iStock / Getty Images
Photo by ipopba/iStock / Getty Images

And here's where hope comes in. Hope is what causes us to wait with expectation, to look eagerly — excitedly — on our watchtowers to see how God will answer us.

"Hope is a waking dream," as Aristotle put it. It's that wonderful feeling when you're wide awake that anything is possible. That sounds like wishful thinking to the one who has suffered disappointment, doesn't it? Like the voice of someone who hasn't been kicked around enough by life. Why would I keep hoping when my dreams have been dashed over and over again? we might think. I'm not a glutton for punishment you know! And on the surface this line of thinking sounds reasonable ... even responsible and practical.

But the funny thing about hope — biblical hope, which is real hope — is that it's actually birthed out of suffering and disappointment: "But we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope" (Romans 5:3-4). Suffering, in the end, produces hope. Naive, wishful thinking that hasn't gone through the furnace of affliction, then, isn't hope at all — it's just wishful thinking, and will remain so until it is sanctified.

But the hope produced in the furnace of affliction is a sanctified hope, a hope that the Lord Himself has placed in the heart of the one afflicted. It's a confidence that emerges from a trial and says, "I know the one in whom I have placed my confidence, and I am perfectly certain that the work he has committed to me is safe in his hands" (2 Tim. 1:12). In the furnace — in The Waiting Place — where we are tempted to give up hope, God is actually working hope in us for the future He has planned for us (which might be very different from the future we have planned for ourselves).

It sounds so backwards, but suffering, waiting, and disappointment are all necessary for hope to grow.

Although sometimes it can feel like the waiting will never end, it will. As Dr. Seuss went on to write, "Somehow you'll escape all that waiting and staying. You'll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing." Look for those "bright places," expectant and hopeful that your good Father "is able to do far more than we ever dare to ask or imagine" (Eph. 3:20). God has things up His sleeve so amazing that they exceed even our wildest imaginings.

If you're in The Waiting Place, I pray that the Lord does His work in you so you can emerge filled with hope, saying, "I know the one in whom I have placed my confidence, and I am perfectly certain that the work he has committed to me is safe in his hands" (2 Tim. 1:12).

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'Tis So Sweet

A few weeks ago in church we sang the hymn "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." I teared up when we sang the first verse and the chorus because I so badly want that childlike trust.

“‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, ‘Thus saith the Lord!’

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!”

I recently listened to a radio program on Moody, and the host interviewed a woman who was about to turn 104 years old. She had walked with the Lord all her life. In her old age she's been given the gift of reflection; she's been able to look back on her life and see all of the ways the Lord has been so faithful to her, even in the hard times. 

Something she said really struck me: she said when she was a child, she never once woke up in the middle of the night anxious that her parents might not feed her the next day, or fearful that she might not have clothes to wear. In fact, she never had these thoughts at all because it was simply a given that her parents would care for her. So why then, she went on to ask, would we be afraid that our perfect heavenly Father won't care for and provide for us?

Anxiety and fear and worry are symptoms of a heart that doesn't trust God and doesn't take Him at His Word, and these are all symptoms I've had when life gets difficult. I have an entire Book of promises from an eternally faithful Promise Keeper, and yet I still struggle to trust. Oh, how sweet it would be to trust in Jesus and to take Him at His Word!

My prayer lately had been for childlike trust that chooses to stake everything on God's promises regardless of what my circumstances look like. Here are a few Scriptures that have really encouraged me on this journey. I hope they encourage you too:

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” - Matthew 7:11

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” - 2 Timothy 2:13

“He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?” - Romans 8:32

“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.” - Isaiah 41:10

“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:19

”I am certain that I will see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and courageous. Wait for the Lord.” - Psalm 27:13-14”

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Waiting on God

“When you hear the sound of marching
in the tops of the balsam trees, then march
out to battle, for God will have marched
out ahead of you to attack the camp
of the Philistines (1 Chronicles 14:15).”

Waiting on God is possibly one of the most difficult lessons a Christian has to learn. But God often forces us to wait on Him to teach us, first, that He doesn’t need human means to accomplish His plans for our lives; and second, that we can trust His ways even when they seem strange, risky, and even impossible. The temptation we have to fight while we wait is taking matters into our own hands.

David knew the importance of waiting on God and His direction. In fact, waiting to hear from the Lord versus taking things into his own hands was literally a matter of life and death. After David had finally become the king of Israel, the Philistines heard the news and planned to wage war against him (1 Chronicles 14). The enemy army surrounded David twice, and both times, David sought the Lord’s counsel.

After the Lord delivered the Philistines into David’s hands the first time, David went to Him again to seek counsel about what to do the second time, and he was probably surprised by God’s instructions. Essentially, God told David not to attack the enemy head-on. Instead, David and his army were to go to the outside of the Philistine camp and wait for the enemy to retreat. The signal that David and his army could march out to battle was the sound of God’s angel army marching on the tops of the balsam trees (v. 15).

Can you just imagine the sound of God’s invisible army marching on the treetops, waging war on behalf of David? Friend, this is the same angel army that God commands to go before you, to wage war on the impossible in order to bring about His plans for your life. Will you trust Him? Will you wait for Him instead of taking matters into your own hands? Will you stop assessing your circumstances by what you can see with your natural eyes and instead keep your focus on the One who created the world out of nothing?

In 2 Kings 6, we get another glimpse of this angel army. The King of Aram “sent horses, chariots, and a massive army” (v. 14) to Dothan, where Elisha and his servant were staying, to capture the prophet. When Elisha’s servant woke up the next morning and saw Aram’s army surrounding them, he was terrified. But Elisha prayed that God would open his servant’s eyes to see reality. God answered that prayer, and the servant “saw that the mountain was covered with horses and chariots of fire” (v. 17). God’s angel army.

I think we get restless in the waiting because we can’t see God working, so we assume He’s completely forgotten about us. But just because we can’t see God working doesn’t mean He’s not. In all things, at all times, God is working for our good.

Let’s have ears to hear the sound of His angel army going before us, and eyes to see His angel army surround us, and rest in the waiting.

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God Delivers Us In Suffering

There's a verse from the Book of Job that I've been meditating on for a few days now, and it's one I honestly don't ever remember reading before. Here it is in a few different translations, which always helps me to better understand a verse:

"But those who learn from their suffering, God delivers from their suffering" (MSG).

"But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction" (Job 36:15, NIV)

"But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer. For he gets their attention through adversity" (NLT).

"God rescues the afflicted by their affliction; He instructs them by their torment" (HCSB).

As I said in my last post, Job was convinced that his suffering was a sign of God's arbitrariness toward him. But, as one commentator put it, "Rather than being a sign of God's unconcern as Job had reasoned (9:15-16), affliction is a mark of God's mercy, keeping one from the deadly path of ignorance" (HCSB Study Bible). 

Imagine that — affliction as a sign of God's mercy! It sounds so paradoxical, but David wrote in the Book of Psalms, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word" (119:67). Affliction does keep us on right paths.

The interesting part to me about the NIV translation of Job 36:15 is that God first delivers us in our suffering — "But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering" — before He delivers us out of it. Deliverance, then, is not only a particular outcome to a difficult situation; it's also God developing in us stronger faith, greater trust, and faithful waiting. It's us learning how to lean on Him as Comforter, Provider, and Friend ... all things that must be learned in our suffering before God delivers us out of our suffering. Here's how John Gill puts it:

“The righteous ... who are humbled, brought low, and made contrite, through the afflicting hand of God: these, though the Lord does sooner or later deliver ‘out’ of their afflictions, yet that is not intended here, but a deliverance ‘in’ them; which is done by supporting them under them, by supplying them with his grace to bear them patiently, by granting them his gracious presence for their comfort in them, by stilling the enemy and the avenger, keeping Satan from disturbing them, and freeing them from doubts and fears and unbelief, and by drawing their hearts and affections off of the world, and the things of it, to himself.”
— John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

In what ways do you see God delivering you in your suffering? Is He increasing your faith, your hope, your joy? Is He teaching you endurance? Is He growing your maturity? Is He keeping you in perfect peace? Is He softening your heart toward others who are suffering? Is He keeping you desperate for Him?

These things may not feel like deliverance, but they are — they are deliverance from fear, worry, and the need to control everything around you. They're deliverance from storing your treasure in the rusting things of this world. They're deliverance from idolatry, apathy, and selfish ambition. And this type of deliverance is the kind that really matters. Deliverance in suffering has eternal benefits, whereas deliverance out of suffering is only temporary — a change in circumstances that will pass away when we enter eternity.

Look for ways God is delivering you in your present trial that have nothing to do with a change in your circumstances. As Tim Keller says, "God often uses our troubles to rescue us from our own flaws and make us great."

How is God rescuing you?

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Questioning the Lord's Wisdom

In church on Sunday, we sang one of my favorite songs: "Behold Our God." The second verse really caught my attention:

“Who has given counsel to the Lord?
Who can question any of His Words?
Who can teach the One who knows all things?
Who can fathom all His wondrous deeds?”

These words come from the Book of Job. After Job loses everything—his money, his family, and his health—his 3 friends come on the scene and try to comfort Him, basically telling him that his suffering is punishment for his many sins. Job defends himself, saying that his suffering isn't a sign of God's punishment; instead, Job says, his suffering is a sign of God's arbitrariness toward him (see Job 30:19-22).

These finite men were trying to (unsuccessfully) explain the ways of an infinite God.

Eventually, God sweeps in and says to Job, "Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?" (38:2, MSG). Another translation puts it, "Who is this who obscures My counsel with ignorant words?" (HCSB), and still another, "Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?" (NLT).

Oh, how many times I question God's wisdom with ignorant words!

Every time I think I know better than God what's good for me, I'm trying to give counsel to the One who knows all things. Every time I convince myself that I'm suffering because God's either punishing me or He's forgotten about me, I'm talking without knowing what I'm talking about. Every time I get angry or frustrated and shake my fist at heaven because I think my suffering is meaningless and cruel, I'm questioning God's wisdom.

The truth is, we only know a teeny, tiny fraction of the whole story God is writing in our lives, but God knows the story from beginning to end. The often quoted verse from Isaiah 55:8 is true—"My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine"—but when it comes down to it, I struggle to believe it. I still think I know what's best for me. And my stubborn heart often questions God's ways.

When God finally spoke to Job and rebuked him for his ignorance, He didn't ever explain to Job why He had allowed such terrible suffering to enter his life. Instead, He listed the dozens and dozens of reasons why He is qualified to be the all-wise, all-knowing God and Job is not. The list is humbling to put it mildly. It's a great reminder of how very small we are and how very great God is.

A few months ago, my mom gave me a wooden plaque with an Elisabeth Elliot quote on it. I have it hanging in my bedroom. It says, "My plea is let me be a woman, holy through and through, asking for nothing but what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands and with all my heart whatever that is." I want this attitude in suffering—a trusting heart, not a proud heart that ignorantly questions God's wisdom.

The heart that trusts in God doesn't ask for explanations or go over every possible reason why God would allow suffering. It doesn't try to understand the ways of an infinite, wise, and loving God. Instead, as Elisabeth Elliot says, it receives with open hands whatever God decides to give, knowing it's given in love. The trusting heart doesn't assume suffering is punishment or arbitrariness on God's part; instead, it knows that a loving Father has promised to work even the hardest circumstances out for good, so it hopes against hope because of who God is.

If today you're struggling to understand how the terrible suffering you're enduring could possibly be a part of God's good plan for you, lay down your need to understand God's ways. Then choose to receive whatever He has allowed into your life with open hands and a heart that trusts Him, and leave the rest to Him. He is able, and He is in control.

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What Trust Is and Isn't

I'm reading the book Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning, and I've been struck by what the author says trust is and isn't.

What trust isn't:

Trust isn't understanding what God is doing: "Though Job is beset by suffering and loss on every side, his trust endures even when understanding fails."

Trust isn't a natural response in the face of suffering: "In the midst of the ruins. ... The trusting disciple, often through clenched teeth, says, in effect, God is still trustworthy."

Trust isn't trying to control a situation: "When taking control becomes our routine response to troubled relationships and worrisome problems, God is not our co-pilot; he's not even aboard."

Trust isn't having clarity: "Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God. Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father's active goodness and unrestricted love."

What trust is:

Trust is confidence in a loving God, not in outcomes: "Only trust makes evil endurable—trust not because God has offered proof, but because God has shown his face."

Trust is learned through trials: "The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through a series of crises and trials."

Trust is waiting well: "In the face of a pressing need for answers and solutions to life's problems—answers that are not quickly forthcoming—trust in the Wisdom and Power who is Jesus Christ knows how to wait."

Trust is the marriage of faith and hope: "Faith + Hope = Trust."

Trust is certainty in our good and loving God: "The quiet certitude of the believer translates simply as, 'I know that I know that I know,' however dimly and through a glass darkly."

Psalm 13 gives us a picture of trust. David is in the midst of a crisis, and he begs God to hear his cry for help. Can you just imagine how David felt? He had been anointed as king of Israel when he was just a teenager, and now he was a desert fugitive.

David's life was full of uncertainty and confusion and chaos, and yet he still chose to put his trust in the Lord. He said, "In your committed love I have trusted: O let my heart delight in your salvation; let me indeed sing to Yahweh because he is sure to deal fully with me" (vv. 5-6, emphasis added).

One commentator said about these verses: "Trust brings delight even when nothing had actually yet changed."

I think of the story of Hannah in the temple, pouring her out out to the Lord in agony because she couldn't conceive. When Eli the priest saw her, he said to her: "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him" (1 Samuel 1:17). After Hannah's encounter with Eli, she "went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad" (v. 18). Hannah's circumstances hadn't changed, but her trust in the Lord was renewed, and that changed her.

I'm trusting God for something right now, and the hardest part is keeping my focus off of the outcome I want and keeping it on God Himself — the all-wise, all-knowing Giver of good gifts. He's not a genie in a bottle I go to when I need something; He's my loving Father who knows exactly what's good for me. When I start to grasp the length and height and depth and width of God's love for me, trust grows because I know He has my absolute best interest at heart.

For all of us who are trusting God for something, let this be our prayer to the Lord: "In your committed love I have trusted: O let my heart delight in your salvation; let me indeed sing to Yahweh because he is sure to deal fully with me" (Ps. 13:5-6).

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God Sees, Hears, and Rescues

“Then the Lord told him, ‘I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land.’”
— Exodus 3:7-8, NLT

After 400 years of the Israelites suffering in slavery in Egypt, God decided it was time to deliver them and lead them into the promised land. So He appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush and told the Hebrew turned Egyptian royalty turned murderer of an Egyptian that he was going to be the one to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt.

The Hebrew people had probably been praying for deliverance from day one, knowing that God had made a covenant with their forefathers to give them a promised land. But can you imagine how weary and discouraged they must have been when year after year went by, and generation after generation died off, and they were still left in slavery? They probably thought God had forgotten about them and lost all hope.

We can all relate to the wearying wait—to the "age-long minute," as Amy Carmichael put it—when day after day, month after month, year after year, our prayers remain unanswered. Discouragement sets in and we wonder if God will ever answer. In fact, even when Moses went to the Hebrew people and told them everything God had said about their coming freedom—their answer to prayer!—Scripture says "they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery" (Exodus 6:9, NLT). Another translation says "they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor" (HCSB).

What I love about this story is that even though the Israelites had lost their faith in God, God didn't lose His faithfulness to them. According to Exodus 3:7-8, God saw the oppression of His people, He heard their cries of distress, He was aware of their suffering, and He was coming down to rescue them. And rescue them He did.

The same is true for whatever we're going through now. God sees us where we are, He hears our cries for His help, He is aware of everything we're suffering, and He already has a rescue plan in mind. Will He rescue us on our timetable? Probably not, but we can be assured that His timing is the right timing. Our job, in the meantime, is to prevent a broken spirit from turning into hopelessness.

If you have a broken spirit right now because of a long period of unanswered prayer, don't stay that way. The psalmist says that a broken spirit is material for sacrifice: "The sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God" (Psalm 51:17, NLT). So you can take your broken spirit, offer it to the Lord, and He'll transform it. And most importantly, He'll give you Himself in exchange. And that's really the point. Not the rescue (although we think the rescue is the point!), but a deeper knowledge of God, which eternal benefits.

So be encouraged as you enter into this holiday weekend! You can rest in the fact that God has full knowledge of your situation and has already worked everything out for your good and for His glory. This chapter of your life has already been written in His book (Psalm 139:15), as has the one after that and the one after that.

And one thing's for sure: God is a master Storyteller.

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