Open This if You're Awaiting a Promise

Dear Friend,

In a world where we spend more time waiting on the promises of God than we do receiving them, I know how exhausting it can be to keep believing. Trust me; I’m right there with you.

So what do we do when it feels like we have more time than faith?

We live.

We step outside and feel the warmth of the sun on our skin. We curl up in a blanket on gray, quiet days. We ease into slow mornings and rest our heads gently at night. We laugh. We breathe. We choose life...on purpose.

Because the truth is that we must decide to go on living. There’s no good reason not to. And that’s exactly the decision I had to make recently.

But first I had to stop fighting.

In Christian spaces, we’ve been conditioned to fight by any means necessary. Fight for the prophetic word. Fight for the promise. Fight to hold on. Fight to prove we’re still standing. But if we’re not careful, what we’re actually doing is trying to control the outcome.

Manipulate. Manipulate. Manipulate.

While it might not be intentional, it does happen.

So in the spirit of transparency, I’ve had to learn a hard but holy lesson over the last ten months: No matter how much I pray, how closely I follow the rules, or how fierce my faith is… nothing happens until God says it’s time.

And that’s a tough truth for those of us made in His image.

Because the image-bearer in us wants to will it into being. We know our authority. We know we can bind and loose, decree and declare, and even call things that are not as though they were. All of that is true.

But so is this: Divine timing matters. And so does the natural world or what scripture refers to as "time and chance." (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

Essentially, both must align to birth the promise. And that tension can be hard to hold, especially when you’ve been waiting a long time.

So, friend, I want you to promise me something.

Promise me you’ll go live. Go enjoy the summer. Touch grass. Attend your favorite concert. Learn something new. Dance. Paint. Play.

Just don’t keep hyper-focusing on what hasn’t happened yet. That pattern is draining your daily joy.

And you deserve joy. Not someday. Now.