Trusting God In The Wait: Don't Underestimate The Time Between Chapters

I wish I could tell you that just as quickly as your trials begin, they'll be over. 

I wish I could tell you that if you just hold on and claim things will change then POOF! Things will change. 

I wish I could tell you the waiting period instantaneously will change, but the truth is, you WILL have to wait.

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13 weeks ago I found myself going through the darkest trial of my life. TBH I was used to going through storms because of my own wrongdoing, but I truly felt like I was honoring God at the time it began. I couldn't understand why I had been chosen to be wrongfully persecuted. Fast forward 4 weeks more and there's been no movement or restoration lately and THIS is where I'm struggling.

God is showing me that patience, peace, and contentment- my 3 biggest struggles, are tough lessons to learn. Contentment and peace can really only be reached by being put in situations where you're forced to be patient and dependent on God.

I've been moping around because of it. This whole thing of trusting God in perilous times- it's not something you can do on your own, in your flesh. It truly requires constantly training your thoughts daily to not focus on your circumstances, but to be focused on the One who surrounds you in the midst of them. Naturally, when things aren't going your way, you want to just give up and be discouraged. Some situations, to be honest, just seem too hard to even try to fight.

I wrote this a few weeks ago and reread it today to remind myself of how the enemy can use discouragement to get us to doubt God's leading.

And then the Holy Spirit put this blog title in my mind today; "Trusting God In The Wait: Don't Underestimate The Time Between Chapters", so I studied this topic to help climb out of the hole I managed to stumble into today lol. I'm preaching publicly to myself with this one lol

Psalms 18:30 says, "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried; he is a buckler to all those that trust in him."  We're so limited in our thinking and how we'd solve our own problems. I have to keep reminding myself not to try to even think of ways to fix my problems because even my best plan pales in comparison to what God can put together in the blink of an eye. We know this. The struggle really comes from trusting His timing. 

We know He can do the impossible, BUT if He takes longer than we'd like, we start to doubt His way. We have to realize that His way is perfect, even if we don't realize it because we can't see the expected end. 

So I started to reflect on people/miraculous situations in the Bible and investigate the timing of them to be encouraged. NOTE: Scholars disagree with the specifics, but you'll get the point. Sometimes we read these monumental stories in the Bible and just because they happen so quickly in the text, we don't realize the actual amount of wait time that had to occur in order for these victories to happen. The Holy Spirit told me today DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE TIME BETWEEN CHAPTERS. 

When God is taking you on a transition, from one place in your life to another, there WILL be a period of time where you'll have to wait; wait on His leading, wait on His opening of doors, wait on His approval to move forward. And I'm a witness that when you're going through it, the wait may seem like FOREVER but you'll look back and what was 10 months or 2 years looks like 1 short chapter of text. Just cling to God to grow you through it.

• Noah- Genesis 6-8 (3 Chapters)
• Foretold Victory: God told him he and his family's lives would be spared while God wiped out the rest of mankind with a flood as punishment for out-of-control, rampant sin.
• Faith was required to.. Build an ark that would carry his family and spared animals when there was no sight of rain
• Wait Time:  Estimated between 55-100 years to build the ark; 1 year of living on the ark while the flood waters poured down
  
• Jacob- Genesis 29 (1 Chapter)
• Foretold Victory: Jacob would marry the woman he loved- Rachel.
• Faith was required to... Work 7 years, be tricked by receiving Leah's hand in marriage, just to have to work ANOTHER 7 years to get Rachel's hand in marriage, the women he actually wanted.
• Wait Time: 14 years
• Joseph- Genesis 37-41 (5 chapters)
• Foretold Victory: God would elevate Joseph far above anyone in his family and his brothers would look to him for survival.
• Faith was required to... Endure countless, wrongful persecution such as being sold into slavery, lied on, and wrongfully imprisoned
• Wait Time: 13 years... Joseph was sold into slavery at age 17. He became 2nd in command in Egypt around age 30.
• Children of Israel's Mass Exodus From Egyptian Rule-  Exodus 3- 14 (12 chapters)
• Foretold Victory: God said that He would deliver the children of Israel out of of the bondage by the Egyptians and take them to the Promised Land
• Faith was required to... Endure enslavement by a group of people, who allowed their fear of the Israelite's size, to persecute them; To be God's chosen people, yet be submissive to a people who were anti-God.
• Wait Time: 400 years... Many people died without seeing it come to fruition, but God still brought it to pass.
  
  
• Plagues of Egypt- Exodus 3- Exodus 11 (9 chapters)
• Foretold Victory: In spite of  Pharaoh's hardened heart, God would "smite" Egypt with miraculous wonders that would lead to the freedom of the children of Israel
• Faith was required to... 1) Be patient and persevere when Pharoah completely shut Moses down after each plague. 2) Perservere when Pharaoh's magicians would make him look foolish by using magic to do, what appeared to be, the same as Moses' showing of God's work. 3) Resist pride and stay humble each time he was rejected and played by Pharaoh
• Wait Time: Anywhere between 2 months to 1 year
• David- 1 Samuel 16- 2 Samuel 5 (21 chapters)
• Foretold Victory: He would become king over all of Israel.
• Faith was required to... Trust that he would be king when 1) Saul was on the throne 2) He was persecuted and ordered to be killed by Saul because of Saul's jealousy 3) He had to go on the run in order to save his life while being pursued by Saul and his men 4) He was faced with the opportunity to murder Saul as a means of self-defense
• Wait Time: 20 years
• Job
• Foretold Victory: God would give permission to Satan to test Job, a rich, godly man, but Job would be victorious and honor God no matter what; Job would remain resilient and not give up on God just because of the trials Satan would bring in his life
• Faith was required to... Trust God when 1) his enemies stole all of his oxen and donkey 2) his servants are murdered by his enemies 3) a fire consumed his sheep 4) his enemies stole his camels 5) his children were killed 6) he had boils all on his body that had to be scraped off
• Wait Time: Several months - a little less than 1 year

You know how this helps me? It shows me that I haven't waited long enough. I'm over here like, "Hey God? Just wanted to remind you... It's been 13 weeks. I'm good. I get the point. You can release me from this now." Many of these people were enslaved and in bondage. There's very few indications in these texts that they knew ahead of time how long they would need to wait for God to lead them to victory. These characters, for the most part, didn't moan and groan about having to wait for God. They trusted Him. They endured. Whether a few months or hundreds of years, God still led them into victory, and, while victory is something that we celebrate in each of these stories, the real victories lie in the wait time. It's in the wait where God really worked because He grew them. The victories were that much sweeter because of what they had to grow through to get to their season of turn around. These characters each had to fully depend on God in their situations, like, fully, and completely GIVE.IT.TO.GOD. In your situation where you're frustrated in waiting for a change, have you become comfortable with waiting? If you have no indication of an end being in sight, will that change your faithfulness and obedience to God?

Sometimes we read through these stories, some even in 1 sitting, and we forget that the wait time wasn't short. This Christian living is not for the faint of hearts. God is not a magician where we cry to Him for a change and 2 seconds later, He changes it because we couldn't take it anymore. God is not here for our temper tantrums. As privileged as we are as children of the King, He's not here for us to be spoiled brats or entitled children where we feel like we have to have everything we ask for when we ask for it. Though He can do that, that's not necessarily the goal. God wants us to be emptied vessels that He can fill up for His use and for His glory; moldable pieces of clay that can be made into His masterpiece. If He rescues use from harm on OUR timing, we would miss out on being able to grow closer to Him and being dependent on Him. The truth is, sometimes we need our wait time to be lengthened because we haven't reached the extent to where we have relinquished all control. If you're like me, 13 weeks can go by and God can still show you that you STILL haven't fully relinquished your grip on the transition He's taking you through.

The more God works on me, the more I'm realizing that we can ALWAYS grow in the area of trusting Him. In some situations, it may take us 1 month of waiting to get to the point of fully trusting God, whereas in other situations, it may take us 3 years of waiting to fully trust God and be led into the victory. Know that however long it takes, it may seem like forever right now, but you'll look back once you've reached your victory and realize that the time between chapters was nothing compared to the reward you received for trusting Him.

Galatians 6:9- And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Trusting and Waiting,

Dear God, You are amazing. You really are. Your mind is just, inconceivable. Your plans are masterful; you truly know better than I. God, even though I know Your ways are perfect, my flesh sometimes is weak. Help me to cling to the fact that in my weaknesses, You show yourself strong. You do not need my help; You are God all by yourself. Help me to truly be at peace and trust you, so that I can get out of the way. Instead of being focused on when this will be over, Help me further develop my dependence on You. Help me cling to you with every ounce of my being. Give me peace, God. Give me contentment. Remove my focus on the circumstances around me, but set my sights on You. I'm gonna make it through. you have an expected end for me. Help me not to underestimate the necessity of the wait time, God. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Crystal Lewis- Trust Me

Kurt Carr & Kurt Carr Singers- Why Not Trust God Again?

Todd Dulaney- Victory Belongs to Jesus

Vashawn Mitchell- Turning Around For Me

Leandria Johnson- Better Days