Long-Haul Faith, Short-Run Expectations

In 1995, Lisa and I, along with the church we pastored, were going through some tremendous difficulties. It looked as though we would not be able to stay in our pastorate, and even the existence of the church was at stake. In the darkest hour, God used a prophetic word to give us hope for what God planned to do. Lisa and I were inspired to stick it out. We were so hopeful, in fact, that we expected the church to grow by the hundreds in short order.

Here’s what’s crazy about that expectation: God has not yet fulfilled that word by growing our church to the size that was prophesied, but he did the miracles needed to keep us afloat in the short run. Here’s a truth this situation points to: The strongest believers I know manage to keep the tension between faith for the long haul and remaining expectant for God to move at any given moment. 

Strong or not, we all have to deal with that dynamic. After all, God can make some pretty fantastic promises; he is always true to keep his promises; and he will fulfill his word in his timing. The rub is that his timing is rarely our timing, and it usually takes a lot longer than we thought it was going to take for certain things to happen. Twenty three years later and I’m still waiting on some promises to come to fruition. We have to learn to wait.

If you don’t, however, maintain the tension of waiting patiently and expecting eagerly, you can end up just settling for less than God intends. We can wait so long that we lose hope, or we just put up with things that God doesn’t intend us to put up with forever. We end up accepting a status quo that falls short of God’s best. I love stories of perseverance over the long haul, but there’s a big difference between persevering with hope and just settling. One keeps us leaning into the future, while the other can lead to despair.

I’ve always been intrigued about the lessons we learn from Hebrews 11. In this chapter, various heroes of the faith are lifted up as examples. In the end, it seems the primary lesson is that the nature of faith is that you believe without ever seeing the object of your faith come to pass in this lifetime. There’s truth to that. Truly our faith should be so big that it extends to what God will do beyond our own lifetimes.

What is easily missed, though, is that the list includes heroes who saw fantastic things happen within their lifetimes. This leads me to the conclusion that the best faith is not one or the other, but both a long-haul perseverance with a right-now expectation: “God is going to do something amazing right now, but even if he doesn’t, I’m expecting God to fulfill his promises!”

Are you still waiting on some promises for God to fulfill? Are you maintaining an eager expectation for God to work? Are you just settling in and embracing the notion that nothing is going to happen? Or, on the other hand, have you been so eager for God to move right now that when he doesn’t, you give up too quickly?

I’d like to think that I’m in this for the long haul, and the best is yet to come. Yet, I want to see God move in power today! Are you with me?

Photo by Jake Blucker on Unsplash.