Many of us have a desire that is weighing heavy on our hearts. We’ve been praying a long while for the manifestation of it, but things don’t seem to be progressing. We’re wondering what the delay is all about. Most of us attribute the delay to punishment. We think that God is withholding the blessing, but this isn’t true. This kind of thinking must be rooted out of our minds and hearts. Psalm 84:11(NLT) tells us, “For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.” God is good all the time and all the time, God is good. 1John 1:5 says that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. He doesn’t punish us, He helps us, and it is our responsibility to invite Him into our situations by believing the truth and acting upon it.

1Peter 5:6-9(NLT) tells us, “6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.” This passage gives us the strategy to stay the course in our faith and prayers. We must humble ourselves under God’s power. The way to do this is to have faith in His power. It’s to recognize that He is the Creator of all there is, and He has all power in His hands. There isn’t anything that our God cannot do, but He limits Himself to only doing those things that convey His love. He is the One with the plan, and His plan is moving forward, achieving everything that He desires. Humility requires us to trust this wholeheartedly even when we don’t see the movement that we think we should. 

Our eyes cannot see all the things that are happening in the spiritual realm. They do not see everything that God is doing behind the scenes, but He is most assuredly causing all things to work together for our good according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 tells us this. God’s timing is perfect, and He cannot fail. He never makes mistakes.  At the right time, He will elevate us. He’s heard all our prayers, and He knows the desires of our hearts. So, we must give all our worries and cares to Him. Instead of having anxieties about whether or not we are going to receive what we’ve prayed for, we should surrender every detail to the Father. When we leave things to Him, they will exceed our expectations because they will be exactly as the Father wants them.

God doesn’t keep it a secret that we have an enemy. In 1Peter 5:8, God warns us about satan, our great enemy. The Father tells us to stay alert and watch out for the devil’s tricks and plots. The main objective of those tricks and plots is to separate us from the blessing of God by diverting and distracting our attention away from Him. When we’re worried and anxious, we’re not thinking and trusting God’s goodness. We’re focusing on things like lack, loneliness, disappointment, heartbreak, devastation, and destruction. We’re consumed with the ‘what ifs’ and not on the ‘all things are possible’. This kind of thinking hinders our faith because it keeps our emotions and thoughts focused in the direction of doubt. We can change this, and we should.

God has made us aware that the enemy’s motive is to separate us from our faith in Him, because without faith, we can’t please God. Without faith, our relationships with Heavenly Father fall apart, and we head down a deadly path. We must pray and stand against this by believing in God’s Word. Our hearts must be like the psalmist’s heart when he prayed in Psalm 86:11(NLT), “Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.” In His Word, God teaches us how to stand tall and firm in faith and courage, and we must remain faithful to read and study the Bible so that we are motivated and encouraged in Christ daily.

Don’t drop the ball in your mind and heart when it comes to increasing your faith in God. Don’t allow your heart to sink by becoming disappointed and discouraged. When we do this, we can fall into error because we think the wrong things about God and His love and goodness. Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross by giving his life as a sacrifice for our sins, he has opened a new way of living for us, and that new way is faith in God. Jesus Christ tore down the curtain that separated us from coming into the face of God, and now we can do so boldly, with sincere hearts that trust Him. Hebrews 10:23(NLT) tells us now that we have received all spiritual blessings through Christ, “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.” Be firm in your conviction about God’s love for you, and trust that He will promote and lift you up according to His divine timing and plan.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Don’t Drop the Ball”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.