HOLD ON!

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say,on the Lord. Psalm 27:14 

It is often said that Christians of this day do not like to hear teachings on righteousness, holiness, endurance, and on God's judgement.They are rather sentimental and get carried away with messages on God's promises and blessings; mainly with prosperity messages.However, many Christians even after hearing about God's good plans for their lives do not live through to its fulfilment in their lives. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness. 2Peter 3: 8-9a. 

When the Lord gives or reveals a picture of His great plan for our lives,we mostly receive it joyfully and our hearts are usually filled with great hope and expectation. I can imagine the joy in the hearts of the Israelites when they were told about the land God was going to give to them - a land flowing with milk and honey. Contrarily, I can as well see the dismay etched on their faces when they were told by ten of the spies sent by Moses to spy the promised land, that the land they had been promised had giant inhabitants that virtually dwarfed them. All hope, I assume, seemed lost at this stage, as they struggled to believe God's promise and report, against the physical report of the ten spies. In the long run, because majority of the Israelites, though initially filled with faith in God's promise, could not rise above the tide of challenges that came in their waiting period, they were unable to enter and possess God's promised land, except for Caleb and Joshua( the only spies who never wavered in faith). 

 Abraham saw God's promise to Him come to pass in his life, but not after, in my opinion, he had somewhat failed the test of waiting. Just like the Israelites who believed God's promise, he did same. But as time elapsed, and there was still no sign of God's promise being fulfilled, only the physical signs that opposed the reality of God's Words and defied its possibility, Abraham decided, his wife privy to it, to have a child with his wife's maidservant. God was merciful, and despite the flaw in Abraham's faith, brought to pass His exact promise in time - Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah without the aid of a third person. 

God's promises are real! However, God usually tells us the end products of His plans, sometimes leaving the gory details of what we must suffer to get to the blissful end. There may be a battle to fight to enter into the land flowing with milk and honey. Likewise like Abraham, there may be a period of dead silence to endure. There could be princes of Persia to confront through prayer before one can live the physical manifestation of God's promise.(Daniel 10:12-13) Hold on in patience and prayer , encouraging yourself in the Lord, as you await a living testimony of God's truthful promises.