“But as for me, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” Micah 7:7
Preparation
In one of my times with the Lord this week, I was reflecting on a verse in Genesis 22:8 about Abraham where he said to Isaac, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb.”
I stopped to think about what faith it took for Abraham to say that. God asked him to sacrifice his son on the altar. He moved forward in obedience, and yet he knew God was going to provide a sacrifice. Faith like that of Abraham isn’t born in a day. It was the result of years of walking with God and seeing His faithfulness. He had a firm foundation in his relationship with God in order to believe God would provide that day.
It reminded me of a book I read about three years ago in the midst of our unexpected journey. A friend gave it to me, and I felt drawn immediately to read it. I actually read it more than once. Anonymous – Jesus’ Hidden Years and Yours* by Alicia Britt Chole. It probably impacted me more than any other book I read on our journey.
The message of the book is that God took the first 30 years of Jesus’ life to prepare His Son for the three years of active ministry. The 30 years weren’t wasted. They weren’t a time of just hanging in limbo, waiting. They were crucial preparation for what was to come. “The decisions we make in difficult places today are greatly the product of decisions we made in the unseen places of our yesterdays.”
Reading the book prompted me to look back over my life before the years on our unexpected journey. I could see time and time again how God had taught me, guided me, and prepared me for what I was walking through. He didn’t just throw me into the deep end. Lesson by lesson He taught me to swim—first in shallow water, then in deep water, and then in stormy, treacherous waters. He was so faithful! “Trials do not prepare us for what’s to come as much as they reveal what we’ve done with our lives up to this point.”
I have had a newfound gratefulness for God’s faithfulness. He took the first 68 years of my life to get me ready for the hardest thing I’d ever walk through. I couldn’t have made it without that preparation. Lessons that began all the way back to my childhood helped prepare me for what I’ve walked through, and am still walking through, on our journey. How good God is!
“If God’s presence has led us into trying places, is there really any other place we would rather be?” When I face a new hard time, I try to remember this: I’m just where He’s allowed me to be. And I can trust His goodness and faithfulness in knowing He has prepared me for where I am.
Father, we believe You have prepared us for this exact time and place. Carry us through our hard times, Lord. Amen.
Amen