Patience is a virtue that can only be learned when going through trials. When the battles of life are raging and you are seeking answers or solutions to difficult situations taking place, at that particular moment in your life, don’t get panicky, keep looking upward and hold still. If it seems like God has forgotten you and like King Saul, you want to offer the sacrifice out of fear of people[1] as he had done before Samuel arrived; if you feel the need to do something, or if it seems like you can't hold on and everything within you says, it is over, go ahead live out what you are feeling; don't do it, hang in there. God has not forgotten you. His love and mercy are still reigning in your life because you are still living, still breathing His breaths of life. When you can grasp the principle that God’s love is all encompassing and omnipotent; that He really is an on- time God who never forsakes His children or leave one in a hopeless mess; you become restful; you will be able to WAIT. The reality of what you are going through may not change quickly, the emotions battling within you may not calm down immediately, the negative voices that you hear degrading your decision to hold on may not stop completely, but based on your faith in a Covenant keeping God that loves his own and cannot lie, you know he has not forgotten you. Psalm 27: 14 says it, “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”[2]
Habakkuk preached it when He said, [“I will go out and see how the LORD will handle my complaint.”][3] Joseph lived it while waiting on God to move on his behalf after being sold in captivity out of demonic interference fulfilled through his brothers by the spirit of jealousy; after the attack by the spirit of lust through Potiphar's wife; after the attack on his integrity by the spirit of deprivation of his freedom through Potiphar himself, when he was thrown into prison unjustly by a seemly intelligent man who was insanely jealous. Yes, Joseph held on to the dream that he was given, even though, I am sure that he went through some deep valleys while holding on. He continued to hold on and received the promise.
How do I know it? It stands in the Bible. After 13 tears, he was called to appear before Pharaoh. And the same God who had taken care of him by giving him favor at Potiphar's house; by giving him favor before the head jailer; this same God brought him before Pharaoh and fulfilled the dream that he had given him at 17 years of age. The dream became reality!
Wait I say, wait on the LORD! He has not forgotten you. Wait on the LORD!
May the LORD who is near to all who call on Him keep you in His everlasting arms.
Schalom,
Pat Garcia
1 See THE HOLY BIBLE, New International Version, 1984, 1 Samuel15:24.
2 See The HOLY BIBLE, New International Version, 1984, Psalm 24:14.
3 See THE HOLY BIBLE; New International Version, 1984, Habakkuk 2:1, Paraphrased.
