“How long do I wait? I’m so tired. Tired of waiting. Tired of praying and seeing nothing happen.”
Have you ever thought these words? They are words I hear from people all the time. They’re words I’ve thought to myself more than once.
Faith. We can read about it. Study it. Walk in it. Pray by it. We can live a life filled with it and not fully understand it.
It’s a beautiful mystery.
We read a promise and our hearts light up with hope! Faith is authored and we pray a bold prayer. We pray prayers for healing and deliverance and freedom, all things God promised us in His Word. All things Jesus paid for on the cross. All things that are within the realm of the will of God for us.
Since we have this confidence, we can also have great boldness before him, for if we present any request agreeable to his will, he will hear us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we also know that we have obtained the requests we ask of him.
(I John 5:14-15 tpt)
We pray our bold prayers and wait for God to do what only God can do. And we wait. And we wait. And we wait.
Time is the enemy of faith. It can wear us down. The enemy can come to attack our thoughts like He did Eve’s in the garden. “Has God really said? Will God really do?”
Until we sound like this. “Lord, I’m tired. So tired. How long, Lord? How long do I pray without seeing anything happen?”
Faith. It’s a beautiful mystery but it can be a fight. Just ask Abraham. Or Joseph. Or Moses. Some decide to throw it away. To quit. To surrender the fight and walk away because God’s when and His how don’t match the expectation we had when we boldly prayed, “Dear Heavenly Father….in Jesus’ Name, Amen!”
Time has worn them down until they surrender and stop fighting. Let me encourage you today. Don’t surrender.
No word from God will ever fail.
(Luke 1:37 niv)
The same God that kept every promise and fulfilled every one of the hundreds of prophecies about Jesus’ first coming will keep every word He has ever spoken to you or about you. He has not changed. He is still faithful.
The only thing that can keep God’s word from coming to pass in our lives is our doubt.
We’re not fighting God, trying to wrestle something out of Him. He loves us. He is for us.
For God has proved his love by giving us his greatest treasure, the gift of his Son. And since God freely offered him up as the sacrifice for us all, he certainly won’t withhold from us anything else he has to give.
(Romans 8:32 tpt)
We’re not fighting the devil. Jesus fought that fight and He won the victory completely. He walked right up to the gates of hell and He took the keys back. He took my health back. He took my freedom back. He took my family back. There is no power struggle here. The enemy is defeated.
No, the fight we’re fighting is against doubt in our own heart and mind.
The easiest victory the enemy will ever get is your surrender. So don’t surrender.
How? How do I keep fighting?
Keep praying bold prayers.
The boldest prayer you will ever pray is to keep praying the one you’ve been praying that God hasn’t answered yet. To keep trusting. Keep believing.
The boldest prayer you will ever pray is when you get up every day when nothing looks different and time is fighting against your faith and you keep saying,
“God, I’m holding You to Your Word. You cannot lie. You said it. You will do it. I trust You. I may not know how You’re going to do it. I may not know when You’re going to do it. It may not look like You’re ever going to do it. But You are God and I am not. I trust You are going to keep Your Word. Amen.”
Just because you don’t know how God is going to do your miracle doesn’t mean God is not going to do your miracle. Just because you don’t know when God is going to answer your prayer doesn’t mean He isn’t going to answer.
I felt a lump in my breast. It was painful. It was there. I went to my doctor and she confirmed it. She wanted me to have it checked, of course, but there were markers that made her believe it wasn’t serious.
But it was painful. And Jesus took my diseases and carried my pains and purchased my healing on the cross. So I prayed a bold prayer for healing.
Every day for six months I woke up and checked it and it was still there. The pain throughout the day reminded me it was still there. And every day for six months I got up and prayed bold prayers. I took communion on a daily basis to remind myself of what He paid for. I danced in my kitchen, rejoicing for my healing from my Healer.
For six months nothing changed. Every morning it was still there, and to be honest, some days were discouraging. “When God? I believe! You are faithful! I don’t understand what’s taking so long, but I trust You!”
I kept praying that bold prayer when my mind was saying, “It’s never going to happen.” When the enemy was saying, “Did God really say? Will God really do?”
I kept praying that bold prayer when time marched on without an answer and it looked like nothing was ever going to change. I kept praying, “Thank You God that You hear me always. And You are faithful. This mountain has to move.”
Then one morning, I got up and checked it and it was completely gone. The pain was gone. The lump was gone. Gone!
What I love most about this life of faith is not the answered prayers, although I appreciate them. What I love most is getting to know the Father more and more each day. As I walked that journey for those many months, He revealed more and more of Himself to me each day.
There’s an intimacy born in those times that won’t come any other way. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
So hold onto your faith and keep praying those bold prayers. Draw close to Him while you wait. He is faithful who promised and He will fulfill it.
(For more on what to do while you wait, you can listen to my new podcast, Here in the Middle.)
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