Worth the Wait

Hurry up ... Wait.

I have always hated to wait.

As a child, waiting for my parents to load the car for a family trip (anywhere) felt eternal. And then, I had to wait, squashed between my two older brothers, as we crossed Michigan. A three-hour drive from Detroit to Grand Rapids, MI, to visit my grandmother--another infinite span of time.

Even with all the waiting, I always knew there was a promise of something amazing on the other end.

But what would happen if I were to always wait and never realize the fulfillment of a promise?

What if my parents established a pattern of making promises without intending to follow through?

I imagine a level of distrust would fester, and by adulthood I might believe promises to be wishful thinking.

When a pattern is well-established, it is difficult to believe anything different.

Children born into poverty may struggle with any hope that affluence can be part of their story. Those raised in wealth could never imagine the feeling of hunger or whether their clothes are well-tailored and clean.

I heard a story several years ago. The pastor shared about orphan children who were taken into an orphanage. Many of them would cry at night, fearful of sleep because they had no idea whether they'd have another meal when they woke or be back on the street. One of the workers realized this and began to fasten a slice of bread to their hands--a physical reminder that they would always have another meal. The children were able to sleep after that.

The children had legitimate fears. To tell them otherwise wouldn't calm them. They needed something to hold on to. Literally.

As children of God, it's no different. In the beginning of our journey with Him, there's the initial buoyancy of our spirits that is exciting and new. Prayers get answered. Peace like we've never known comes.

And then the honeymoon season is trampled on by the day-to-day stressors that didn't get the memo that our life now belongs to Jesus. Or maybe they have, and are determined to knock us back to our anxiety-driven, people-pleasing, peaceless existence. Whichever the case may be, our surrender to Jesus, our Bread of Life, was no fairy tale to forget. He is who we hold to.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were instructed to take large stones and pile them up in specified places, "that this may be a sign to you. When your children ask in time to come, 'What do those stones mean to you?' then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD ... So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever" (Joshua 4:6-7 ESV).

Today, journals often are filled with emotional highs and lows, gains and losses, our deepest fears, our triumphs, dreams, hopes, and sometimes our failures. For many, journals also highlight the ways God has blessed, encouraged, broken through, or broken down impossible walls, ways we see Him working in our lives in the season we're writing.

These, friends, are our "stones of remembrance" or "slice of bread". We can look back into our own lives and recount the times the Lord has provided financially, given strength when we felt weak, healed our brokenness, and brought us peace we couldn't explain. Because when the wait is long, and we begin to wonder if it was just wishful thinking, we need reminders.

I would never discount the importance of Scripture. It is the best-documented journey of a nation's history and God's faithfulness we will ever encounter. And it applies to our lives as well. We can hold fast to the promises of God because we have been adopted into the family of God (Ephesians 1:5).

We don't know when the promise will be fulfilled. We don't know how. But we can be confident that He will do what He said He would do. The wait period might not look (or feel) like blessing. 

I'm pretty certain the Israelites didn't see slavery in Egypt as a blessing, but rather that God had forgotten them. But if we look back to God's interaction with Abram, "Then He said to Abram: 'Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years'" (Genesis 15:13 NKJV).

I know, not a word I want to hear. But let's read on:

And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions" (Genesis 15:14 NKJV). 

By the end of Genesis, we read that Abram had a son called Isaac, whose son Jacob had 12 sons. Of these sons, one--Joseph--was sold into slavery to Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt (Genesis 37:25-28). In Egypt, Joseph's integrity was tested; he was imprisoned, but eventually he was elevated to second in command, only to Pharaoh, because of his ability to interpret dreams. It was the fulfillment of these dreams that brought Joseph's brothers to Egypt for food during a 7-year famine. And before Genesis closes its book, Joseph's brothers and father, with all their family and livestock, move to the best part of the land--Goshen. The number of Jacob's household to move to Egypt was 70 (Genesis 46:27).

When we begin the next book, Exodus, it isn't long before we can see the Egyptians turning on the Israelites.

"And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land" (Exodus 1:7-10 NKJV).

Did you see that? Israel was more and mightier than the Egyptians, and this was a problem.

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens ... But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they (Egypt) were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage--in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor (Exodus 1:11-14 NKJV).

I've always found it interesting that a people group, intimidated by another's size and strength, can enslave the latter. But the Egyptians did. And 400 years into this, the Lord raises up a prince,  Moses--a Jewish man fished out of the Nile as an infant by Pharaoh's daughter and raised in the palace. (For the sake of time, we will forego telling his story. But I encourage you, go read it.)

By the time Exodus closes, the Egyptians let the Israelites go, carrying with them the wealth of their captors. Exodus 12 reports, "Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children" (Exodus 12:37). Scholars estimate this number to be much larger, as it only counted the men. When factoring in the women and children, the estimation is about 2-million people.

I can't, with proof, state that the 400 years were an incubation period for a nation to be grown. But the end result was indeed a nation, large enough and mighty enough to occupy a land of its own.

Isn't it interesting, though, how our enemy will somehow convince us that we are not strong enough, not whole enough ... just not enough, and manage to keep us bound to the very bonds that Jesus came to free us from?

So, we look to the Scripture. We look to the Lord. We take our stones of remembrance and trust the Lord has already won the victory for us.

As one who has waited more than she desires, and is still waiting on some fronts, I can promise you, God is faithful.

We can count on Him! And the end result is worth the wait.

Until next time, I will leave you with these Scriptures:

The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9 ESV)

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV).

But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31 NKJV).

Back on Track: The Restoration of the Lost

Sterling Heights, MI: January 2023

“Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

~ Lamentations 3:22-23 ~

We open our next lesson from Elisha with a little testimony time. Gehazi, the man who'd served Elisha, stood before the king, answering one request: to tell all of Elisha's miracles and exploits.

Gehazi was in the middle of his presentation when a woman approached the king with a request. When Gehazi recognized her, he drew from her history with Elisha. "My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life." And when the king asked the woman, she told him (2 Kings 8:5b-6a).

This woman had been out of the country for seven years, at the direction of Elisha, who'd told her a famine would fall on the land for a time and she should take her family and live somewhere else until the famine had lifted. When the time came, she returned and went before the king to request that her land and home be restored to her. Her timing was perfect in that Gehazi was discussing how Elisha had raised her son to life after he died in her arms. After she'd confirmed Gehazi's story, the king issued orders for an official to ensure all that was hers be restored:

And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, "Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now." ~ 2 Kings 8:6 ~

In case you're wondering, this is the Shunammite woman who cared for the prophet Elisha when he came through her town. He'd learned that she and her husband had no children, and her husband was well on in years. To bless the woman, Elisha sought the Lord, and she was granted the one thing that would show her that God was pleased with her. A child. In that culture, to be without children was a cloak of shame on a woman. She'd told Elisha to not toy with her.

She didn't want her hopes to be raised only to be crushed. A year later, her son was born as the man of God had said. A few years later, however, the boy died in her arms. She laid him on Elisha's bed and went to bring him to her home. Before she did so, she reminded him how she didn't ask for this. Elisha sent her from his room and began to seek the Lord. And later, he took the boy and gave him back to his mother--alive.

Through the years, the woman must have continued ministering to Elisha's need for lodging and food. A friendship may have formed. And when Elisha knew food would become scarce, he warned her, saying,

"Arise, and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever you can, for the LORD has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years." So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. She went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. ~ 2 Kings 8:1-4 ~ 

Her ability to trust the man of God is evident in her willingness to pick up her entire household and move to a foreign land. This is also indicative of her ability to trust the God of the man. I don't see any mention of her husband making the decision to move. It was her. A woman. And then seven years later, pull up stakes and move again, back to the land from where she came.

There's no mention of what the people thought of her. Only that she confirmed what Gehazi told the king, and the king responded by restoring her property--plus back pay.

This story feels familiar to me.

How many of us can say that?

Every day we're faced with decisions that can impact our friendships, family relationships, or financial situations. Often, we believe we're taking the path laid out by God. Then there are those moments, miles down the road, when we may wonder if our choices were our own path, attempting to "help" God fulfill a promise in our lives.  And we find the relationships we'd begun to cultivate years ago are now distant, but cordial. Friendly, yet missing that element of closeness we were once hoping to gain.

MetroBeach, Harrison Twp, MI 2022

I have, on occasion, reminisced about the time Jeff and I were going to move to West VA so he could attend Bible school. When announcing it to the family, some accused us of trying to cut them out. So we relented and stayed in Michigan. Later, we felt led to move across the state to Grand Rapids, but roadblocks prevented the move. Years passed. Children were born, grew, and are now young adults; and we are still planted in the SE corner of Michigan.

Through all of this, I have found myself questioning whether we'd missed our exit on the path God laid out. But as I read my Bible, including this story in 2 Kings 8, I am reminded of a few things:

• "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). 
• "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand" (Proverbs 19:21)

And if we do get off track, the Lord is faithful to redeem us as we repent and return to Him in humility and trust. 

• Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
• And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)
• The Lord redeems the life of His servants; none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned. (Psalm 34:22)
• He sent out His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. (Psalm 107:20)
• And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. (Job 42:10)
• The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in Him." (Lamentations 3:22-24)
• I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. (Joel 2:25)

Every day we wake.

Every day we have an opportunity to start fresh.

Every day, we have choices. 

The best decision we could possibly make is to surrender and "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones (Proverbs 3:5-8).

Until next time, 💜 Karlene J 💜