Hello my friends,
I want to post this for everyone to read.
It has a special meaning for a special person.
I took this from a sight of my friend John Boyd's future wife Laila Site. She is amazing girl. Congratulations John Boyd.
Long
stretches of waiting can weary the soul. Insidious feelings of failure
could creep in. But what we call failures may really be postponed
blessings. Way back, God promised a certain man that He will make him
into a great nation. The problem was that this man, Abraham, was
childless. How can he become a great nation when he didn’t even have a
son?
It had been twenty-five years since that promise. Abraham must have felt like a failure. To others, he may have seemed like a failure. Worst of all, he may have thought God was a failure. Years of barrenness caused him no little anguish. "O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless... You have given me no children...." Rather, a servant in his household will inherit all his possessions.
Imagine Abraham’s hope night after night when he makes love to
Sarah. "Perhaps this night...our son will be conceived." Imagine his
hope morning after morning as he watches if Sarah will retch with
morning sickness. Imagine his hope dashed for the nth time when there
was no conception. No morning sickness. No son. Twenty-five years is
9,125 days. That is 9,125 days of disappointment!
Yet the story of Abraham is not merely to teach us to wait. It is to
teach us that in God’s economy, failure can be postponed blessings.
Surely, there are failures that are due to our negligence or outright
stupidity. But if God has given us a promise and we are genuinely
faithful to our task, yet the desired outcome does not happen, we
should not suppose we have failed. Worse, we must not think that God
has failed us.
The Postponed Blessing can be different things to different people.
Basically, it is the much hoped-for and prayed-for thing in your life.
For Abraham, it was the child of promise. For a single, it is the
pealing of wedding bells. For a businessman, it is the fruit of a
long-term investment. For a jobless person, it is to hear the words,
"You’re hired." For the parent of a wayward son, it si to hug that son
again, I wonder what it is that you would call a Postponed Blessing?
There was a time in my life when I was jobless for over two years.
My fervent desire was to see God restoring my career and fortunes. I
had gone through several interviews, thinking at last I will have fresh
employment, only to see someone else get hired. It was tempting to see
myself as a failure or to see God as powerless to help.
Yet I had the assurance that "because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I
will not be disgraced." What I supposed to be failure in my job-hunting
(or other pursuits, for that matter), was simply postponed blessing.
Thus, by God’s grace, I persevered in faith. In due time, God provided
me with a good-paying job. What’s more, this was in preparation for my
marriage to an excellent lady, Lucy.
It is interesting that when God reaffirmed His promise on the 24th
year, Abraham - who was then 99 years old - laughed. But the next time
I’m sure Abraham laughed - I mean, really laughed - was during the
great feast he threw for his son the following year. His wife Sarah
finally conceived and gave birth to a normal, healthy boy. In fact, the
name Isaac means " he laughs." When Isaac was weaned, Abraham threw a
grand party!
At last, after twenty-five years of "failure," the blessing came.
This the wonder of the God of Postponed Blessings. He turns ashes into
beauty, wailing into dancing, crosses into crowns and yes, failure into
fulfillment.
(by Nelson Day, FINDING COMFORT - PUT IN SUSPENSE)
Aaron and Kathy
simikathy.com