"Now What??"

Have you ever had a promise from God…for a husband/wife, baby, ministry/calling, job, house etc…finally come to pass after years of praying and believing? It’s a wonderful feeling. God is so good and is always true to His promises. The thing is, during this time of trusting and believing, we can sometimes make a bit of an idol out of our promise. It’s easy to think that once we get whatever it is we’re believing for, we’ll finally “arrive”, our lives will be happy and blessed, and we’ll become this whole new person now that our dream is finally fulfilled. Right?? Wrong!!

I remember after being a single mum for 10 years when God brought my now husband into my life (see my previous blogs for the story). When we got married there was so much exhilaration and excitement. We were literally riding a euphoric wave of joy, celebrating God’s goodness and faithfulness in our lives. It really was an amazing time. Cut to a month or two later, the euphoria was dying down as we were now living out the practical reality of everyday life and the challenges of blending our families and lives. I remember walking around the park one day thinking, thank you God for blessing me with this amazing man and new family, I’m so blessed and grateful but… ”NOW WHAT??”

So much of my focus for the last two years had been on God bringing this promise to pass and it was a massive faith journey. Now that it had actually happened, I was a little lost.  As blessed as we were, there was so much adjusting to be done, and it wasn’t all smooth sailing. In all honesty, after just being me and my two boys for 10 years, at first it felt a little awkward living with our new family who did things so differently to us and I’m sure they all felt the same! And seriously…I had no idea just how independent and strong willed I’d become living as a solo mum. I wasn’t expecting to find it so hard to relinquish being in total control of everything and admittedly, as my husband would testify, I still struggle with this! Then there were all the emotional minefields surrounding our kids, not to mention slander and drama coming at us from a certain source, that I just wasn’t expecting or had ever had to deal with. There were days when I thought, “Come on God, I know this was Your plan and You’ve blessed us greatly but I thought it would be different and so much easier than this!” The truth is, I just wasn’t expecting such adversity with my promise.

Sometimes we can fall into the trap of thinking that God bringing about His promises in our lives is a bit like a fairy-tale that leads to “happily ever after”, but the honest truth is…there is no fairy-tale! Are we blessed? Absolutely! Has God been good to us? Unbelievably! Are our lives perfect with no trials, challenges or drama? Definitely not! The reality is when we finally get what It is we’ve been believing for, it usually comes with a whole set of new challenges, a lot of hard work and something that keeps us trusting and believing God for…and that’s okay! God absolutely wants to bless us by giving us our heart’s desire but more than that He wants to continue to grow us to be more like Him.

When we come to that “now what” stage, it’s time to get a fresh vision and promise from God for our future. We’ve been married for nearly 3 years now and I can tell you it’s been a rollercoaster of highs and lows! The things we’re believing God for now are very different than at the beginning. Please be encouraged…you may have been believing for something or someone for a long time and God has brought it around in your life. Just because there are challenges or it may not be ‘the ideal’ you expected does not mean that somehow you missed it or maybe God wasn’t really in it.

Remember, when we step out in faith and receive Gods promises for our lives, there is also going to be spiritual opposition. As the saying goes, “new level, new devil.”  The enemy will do whatever he can to bring discouragement, division and doubt to try and rob us of our joy and peace. 1 Peter 4:12 in the Message says “Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.” When those fiery trails come to test us, don’t be discouraged or lose heart. God is so faithful and He hasn’t finished with our story yet!

I pray that God gives you your heart’s desire and you know great blessing, but if adversity comes or things are different than you expected, don’t be surprised or discouraged. Instead, hold onto God and trust Him to complete what He started. He is so good and He ALWAYS keeps His promise.

Jules xx