We live in a world where we like to know everything in advance. We like to know the answer ahead of time. We like to know what's coming. We like to know how long it is going to last. If we are really honest, we want to know how we are going to get there, what's in between, and when we will be done. But God doesn't work that way.
When we look through the scriptures, we are going to see that God often reveals a thing to someone before He does it. It may not be in great detail, we might not know all the nuances but God will reveal an aspect of what’s to come, but if we're not careful, a lot of times, we miss that piece. We miss that glimpse of what the big picture will be like.
Now here is where we lose faith or forget the revelation from God ... when in the middle of it, It doesn't look at all, like what we thought we were being called to. When it gets hard and messy. When we don’t understand how all of this will equal that glimpse of the plan we know God gave us.
It's kind of like when you run a race, let’s just say a 5K. You know where you have to meet to start the race and you know that you're going to finish the race at the 5K mark, but what you may not know is all that will happen along the course, every twist and turn, hill and decline that you're going to go through.
Going back to Genesis, God would often tell them, this is what I want you to do. He would show them things, but He didn't always show them the middle ground.
Noah knew there would be a flood and that God was going to save His family but did he have any idea that he would be building a boat for 100 years and living on that boat for a year? When Abraham was called to leave everything and become a great nation for God, did he know that he would only live to see one child with Sarah? When Joseph had dreams of his family bowing before him, did he realize it would take him being sold into slavery and imprisoned for this to come to pass? When Moses went to set the children of Israel free, did he understand that they would speak ill of him and take all the plagues for it to happen? Did he understand that being trapped at the Red Sea would become the greatest victory?
This list could go on and on with almost everyone throughout the scriptures. I’m certain that all of them had that moment of did I miss something? Is this really what God called me to?
God [is] faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. [1 Corinthians 1:9]
Through scripture we get to see the full picture, God lets us see that He is faithful. So, while the middle of their callings were hot messes and filled with complicated things, we also can see the end and know that the finish line didn't move. The promise didn't change. God was still faithful.
Often people believe they start their race when they surrender their lives to Jesus Christ, but salvation is the point where we give up our race and start running His race. The race that the Author of our lives has set before us. We don't know the middle, but He's already promised us the finish.
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. [Hebrews 12:2]
The finish is glory land through death or rapture. Either way, we win.
The problem comes in when it gets hard in the middle when it becomes difficult to remember the promise. What will we do with it?
See, this is a race about eternity. It's not a day-to-day race. And we have to decide. Are we going to give up because it gets hard? Are we going to give up because we don't understand how in the world this path is going to lead to the promise that He gave?
When we look at the lives of faithful men and women from the very beginning of creation, we see that there is no way they would have created that race for themselves. They would not have chosen to go through those painful journeys, but on the other side, they not only were victorious but most importantly they knew more about who God was. This is where they learned to fully worship and celebrate Him.
If we allow the middle, the hard things that don't seem to line up with the call that God has given us, to sidetrack us, we will miss the miracle. We will miss the miracle.
We'll miss the times to just talk with God. Will miss seeing Him deliver people. Will miss the times when he's going to use us to do something miraculous to change someone else. We will miss all the ways He wants to reveal Himself to us.
Who wants to stand before the Lord one day and say I just gave up because it didn’t look like what I thought or because it got hard. I would rather say I crawled here on busted knees and hands with every last bit of energy You gave me.
Today, ask yourself, “Are you going to stop midway because the goal doesn't look like what you thought it would? Are you going to stop because other people walked out? Are you going to stop because people hurt your feelings? Are you gonna stop because others are?
In the middle of the hard is when you need to keep moving. It might not be a Sprint. It might be a crawl. But you're still running the race if you're moving. Do you know what happens if you stop hard? You get stuck in it and the devil will cause you to dwell on it and all you'll see, is the hard and the negative and the downcast!
Philippians 2:16, says, “holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.”
This race is not in vain. This should make us rejoice, do you understand that we are not running this race for us or our glory?
It is the race to Christ and to glorify His name that we can rejoice when we see Him face to face.
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