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Isn’t it difficult to rest inside when you don’t see movement in what you want to see happen? I mean, NOTHING is moving in your direction. It’s stalemated. Stubborn. It isn’t responding to what you believe you’ve done to cause it to happen.
Something in your life is just not going somewhere. Anywhere! So what is one of the main emotions we feel during that time? Disappointment! We are not satisfied because our goal hasn’t been accomplished. Our need hasn’t been met. Our desire hasn’t been fulfilled. So we start this inner turmoil.
Proverbs 13 says, Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around. (Ref. Proverbs 13:12 MSG.) But until that good break comes…! Until we see some kind of movement in our favor…! It can be easy to have disappointment take over our heart.
There’s just one way to stop that. Decide you’re going to enter a place of rest in God. You will trust Him. Know that you’re supported by Him. Allow Him to strengthen you and be at peace.
I watched as one of our ministry Partners experienced this. She and her adult daughter were believing for a home. Their heart’s desire was to have a nice house where they would be comfortable and happy and serve God. But my goodness, what those two women endured! The devil was determined to keep it from them.
So they had asked us to pray for God to provide them a way to find a home and get the best type of loan for what they desired. Then they would give me updates each month. They would get excited when they found a real estate agent who really seemed to want to work for them. Then the agent would turn out to be someone not just and honest. So they would have to find another agent.
Then they would talk to one institution about a financial loan, and it would seem it was going forward, then it would go backward. They felt so many people were taking them for a ride.
The time began to stretch out. It seems during those times that our emotions want to go up and down. You think you see your dream coming to pass and then nothing happens. You don’t see any movement.
But there was something about our Partner who was corresponding with us that I saw happen. She came to that place of rest. In her notes to us she would talk about how she trusted God. She knew He was moving in their favor. There wasn’t any doubt they would get their home.
In spite of what was coming against them, in spite of the conditions that would come up, every time she would say she was praising God for what He would do. Her mind and heart believed and therefore she could be at rest in spite of the turmoil the enemy was creating.
Listen, Satan does not want you to rest inside. He wants you to be in turmoil, as the conditions are. He wants you to be distraught. Disappointed. Heartsick. That way he can make you distrust God. And when you don’t trust God, you can’t be in a place of rest.
So this woman saw past the devil’s efforts to rob them of rest and try to get them to give up. Because of that, here’s what I’ve received. It was a thank you card that was so cute. Then she wrote on the inside, “Jeanne and John, praise be to God! I had to send you all this thank you card.” She described how it’s been a real fight. “But,” she says, “Praise God! My daughter got her first house. We will be moving in there the end of [this month]. God is good! I truly thank God for all the prayers and standing in agreement with us you all did. I pray God’s continued blessing over you!”
They got it! After all they had experienced, they now have their new house and they’re moving into it. But they had to get past disappointment when they didn’t see any movement.
This is what we all experience. The time when we refuse to allow ourselves to get out of the place of rest when we don’t see any movement in our favor. God doesn’t want to see His people going around sad and down in those times. He wants to see trust coming up out of us. Peace inside our souls. Our minds are stable. Our emotions are balanced. Doesn’t that sound great! That is a description of the place of rest.
You don’t have to live in torment, turmoil, or disappointment. You can be at rest because even though what you see is unfavorable, you believe God is working it out. When nothing is moving, God is still moving!
Spiritual Powerline to say out loud:
“I’M AT REST BECAUSE GOD IS MOVING!”
Here is a powerful prayer to say out loud:
Lord, even though I haven’t seen progress yet, I know something good is happening. It’s forming and building and starting to come to pass. So I will not be anxious or in turmoil. I’m at rest in You. My heart will rejoice when I see what You have done. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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