Perseverance and the Promise

Do you have a God promise hidden in your heart? A picture in your mind that won’t stop reappearing?  A beautifully crafted dream quietly coming to life. Not yet fully seen, but felt.  A sound that keeps ringing out even when you sleep, gently beating in time with the rhythm of your heart, urging you to hold fast, to keep believing, to not give up because in due time all will be unveiled?  And the wheels that are slowly moving forward are tempted by impatience to drive this thing faster but the still small voice whispers wait, wait, the time will come when all that you’ve seen will be revealed?

Do you sometimes wonder if it will ever come to pass?

Do you wonder if it’s really as important as it feels to you?

Do you wonder if this is ‘God breathed’ or simply selfish ambition?

Do you wonder if you have what it takes to ‘become’ the dream you see?

I do.

Nearly ever day I grapple with at least one of these dream snatchers.  Sometimes I feel that it would be easier to just give up. To stop sowing into and believing for what I’ve held on to, for what I’ve hoped for, for what I’ve felt was His dream for me.  Wouldn’t it be easier than living with the angst of persevering?

These days of persevering are thwart with danger, hope deferred danger, doom and gloom danger, it’s a waste of time danger and I don’t care anymore danger, all wanting to rob me of trusting that the Creator who placed these things within, is able to bring to pass that which He promised.

I often think of a story a dear old preacher told me many moons ago.  He spoke of the Great Archer preparing his weapons for battle, hand crafting his arrows, shaping them according to speed and accuracy and sometimes even breaking them and reshaping them so they would be ready for use.

Carefully placing the arrows in the bow bag he had slung over his shoulder, the Archer walked out into the field to test what he had made.  One by one he gently took the arrows from his battle bag and primed them for use upon his bow, only to put them back again.  He tested them often to see if they would bend properly, had the wood cured, were they ready for use, would they hit their target?  One by one he placed each arrow on his bow, pulling it back, as if to shoot.  Sometimes he would shoot the little arrows to see whether it was their time to fly.  If they missed their target, he’d carefully pick them up and place them back in the bag only to work on them later. Others he would simply take out and look at, smiling to himself at what he’d made.  He would admire it’s beauty, the colour of it’s wood and the feathered decoration but he wanted to keep this one a little longer so back in the bag that arrow would go.  It wasn’t time yet, nor was it ready for where he knew it needed to go.   The day would come, but not yet.

Do you feel like one of those arrows.  Maybe your the one he keeps putting back in the bag.  Maybe you’ve felt those times where he’s taken you out of the bag and you’ve felt the movement on the bow as if now is the time to launch,  but just when you’ve thought it’s time, he’s placed you back in the bag.  Perhaps if you were to launch now you wouldn’t hit your target and you wouldn’t have the effect he wants you to have.  Maybe there’s more preparation to be done. Maybe the ones he wants you to touch aren’t ready yet.  Maybe he just wants you all to himself a little longer, to draw you close.

Who knows the reasons why?  Whatever they are, I want to encourage you to stay trusting, stay right in the palm of His hand.  Don’t wriggle out with self promotion.  Stay waiting between the promise and persevering.  His timing is perfect and he knows exactly where you are and what you need to get you to where he wants you to be.

Trust little Arrow.