I ordered an item from the Magnolia store that was a Bible verse created out of a piece of metal, but I was told it was on back order. It would be a long wait for it to arrive, and it took so long to arrive that I actually forgot about it entirely.
Months later, a box appeared on my door step and caught me totally off guard.
Have you been waiting so long for God to answer a prayer that you are struggling to hold on to hope? You wonder if you will ever see the fulfillment of what your heart desires. It’s like your miracle is on back order.
God loves to surprise us, and He rarely fulfills what we hope for on our timetable or based on our expectations. We picture something that makes sense to us, but God has a distinctly different way of unfolding His divine purpose.
Seven hundred years before Mary gave birth to Jesus, a prophet had declared, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)
The Israelites expected an earthly king who’d come to rescue them from oppression, but God had much more in store for them. He took on flesh and came to earth as a helpless child to rescue all of humanity from sin.
Immanuel, God with us. Literally. How could we have ever imagined that?
God had told Isaiah not to give away to fear during a time of deep uncertainty and upheaval. King Ahaz sat on the throne in Judah and was dealing with opposition from an alliance between the King of Syria and the King of the northern kingdom in Israel. The Lord promised that the Messiah would indeed come from the line of David.
The Holy Spirit can birth life and light in the darkest places. Immanuel, God with us, means we always have hope. God always enters in and comes to save us.
His timing is impeccable, and His promises are always perfectly fulfilled.
This reassures me so much – – I don’t think I’ll be waiting 700 years but in praying and everyone else praying for my sight to be restored and nothing is getting better but only worse. It is hard to hold onto Hope.