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When Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was “past the age” of childbearing, God promised her a child. Naturally speaking, it was impossible. It should have already happened, but because she was “past the age,” it could not happen—or so it seemed.

But God gave a promise.

How many times has God planted a dream in our hearts, an idea that we began to long for, a request we fervently prayed for, but, as time marched on, one day we felt “past the age” for our dream, for God’s promise? Because we don’t anticipate how God operates, oftentimes we grow weary, or doubt, and give up too soon waiting for circumstances to turn in our favor, or dreams to come to pass.

I have discovered that God waits until a situation is impossible before He does a miracle because only then can He have all the glory. If Sarah had conceived when she was young—when she wanted to conceive—she would have taken the credit.

I don’t know what you have prayed for, believed for, longed for or cried for, but the facts of our present never negate the truth of God’s promise for our future—no matter how many years have gone by.

God’s promises don’t have expiration dates. They aren’t like passports or gym memberships. They aren’t like the condiments in the fridge, or the food in the pantry. If He promised it, it will happen. We just need to be flexible with how He wants to do it. We can’t confuse due dates with due season. We aren’t promised due dates, but we are promised due seasons: “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Gal. 6:9, NKJV).

If your prayer request is something God has called you to do, commissioned you to accomplish or compelled you to complete, then stay in faith, believing, no matter what. “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered Him faithful who had made the promise” (Heb.11:11, NIV).

Nothing—and I mean nothing—in my life has gone as I expected. But it has all worked out. Everything thus far God has wanted to accomplish through me has somehow come to pass. It didn’t look like I thought it would. It didn’t happen in the timing I thought it would. It didn’t come from the resource I thought it would. It didn’t come because of the people I thought it would.

But it did happen—eventually. Due season did come.

If you’ve pulled back in disappointment, it’s time to lean in—God has not forgotten you. As you continue to stand in prayer believing God and His timing, personalize these words from Philippians 1:6: “I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return]” (AMP). It will happen!

Prayer Points

  1. Consider the desires of your heart. Pray for God to show you which ones are godly and worth pursuing.
  2. Ask God to give you faith that stretches beyond our boundaries of time, age and situation.
  3. Pray for God to continue to perfect and complete that good work in you.

Share your thoughts. See comments below, and add your own.

is an activist, speaker and the author of six books. She and her husband, Nick, run A21, a nonprofit organization that fights human trafficking, as well as other ministries, from their home in Southern California.
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Comments

  1. Wonderful. God is a wonderful, and forever faithful. I will trust him. Praise the Lord. Ps. 34.

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