We have been delving into the promises of God, those declarations that invite us into a life of faith and fulfillment. Yet questions arise as we walk this out. I want to address five common ones here, drawing from Scripture and experience, to help clarify how we receive, stand on, and battle for these promises. Let us examine what it means when timing seems off, when rest feels like laziness, and when faith grows harder through seasons.
Is Timing Ever an Issue with God’s Promises?
As it is written in John 19:30 (NKJV): “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” The question comes up about one of the standard evangelical reasons, or frankly excuses, for why prayers seem unanswered. It is not God’s timing. We pray, something does not happen, and we say it must not be God’s timing. I think that is probably one of the major religious reasons people use for explaining away unanswered prayer. Is it never valid? Is it sometimes valid? I would suggest to you that about 98 or 99 percent of the time, it is not true. The issue is not God’s timing. The issue is us. I think that is nearly always the case, but not always the case. There are exceptions. I will give you two biblical exceptions to that. Most of the things, nearly all the things we pray for, are actually things that Jesus bought, Jesus paid for, Jesus accomplished. When Jesus cried out in John 19, verse 30, it is finished, they were finished, they were done, signed, sealed, delivered, and finished. Why, when you read the New Testament, it is really illustrated to notice. It is nearly always written in the past tense. You have been blessed with all spiritual blessings. You have been seated in heavenly places. By whose stripes you have been healed. Of this fullness have we all received grace for grace. The New Testament, especially the epistles, are telling us and showing us what we already have. When you pray for what you already have, you are praying a prayer God cannot answer. You are praying a prayer that will not happen. If I am asking God to give me something he has already given me, and when I judge by my experience that it did not work, it did not happen, and I go, maybe that is timing. Well, here is the point to grasp. God’s timing was 2000 years ago. God’s timing is not today, is not tomorrow, it was 2000 years ago. Imagine if I led somebody to Jesus today. You might say wonderful. Fred, for illustrative purpose, his friend got saved today. It must have been God’s timing to get him saved. Well, in one sense, Fred got saved today, and of course God knew that Fred would get saved today, so we could look at it that way, but when was God’s time for Fred? Did God not want Fred to get saved yesterday? What if Fred pushed it back and said, no, I am going to think about this next week? Then it would have been God’s time next week. God’s time to save Fred was 2000 years ago on the cross of Calvary, or before the foundation of the world when the works were finished. It became Fred’s time when he received what God gave. A lot of people wait for years to get healed. They get healed when they actually believe his word, and then they think it is his timing. I once had supper with a family. There was a young lass in a wheelchair who believed that one day God would heal her. I said to her, we were talking about this, and I said, I agree with you, one day he will heal you, but you can be healed today. She answered, this thing we are talking about here. It is not God’s timing. I led her through the scriptures and showed God did this 2000 years ago. The timing is less about God. It is more about you. That night the girl sat, walked through the scriptures, and came away from that experience completely healed, not because of my prayers, but she shifted her belief. While she believed God would heal her in 10 years time, that is where her faith was, and God would heal her in 10 years time. I think this whole thing about timing is a bit of a red herring. There is only one time, one moment, one instance that I know of in the New Testament where somebody asked the Lord for something, and he said no because of his timing, and that was Mary with her son, John 2, the wedding at Cana. Mary comes to Jesus and says, son, we need a miracle. Jesus checks in with heaven, he says, woman, it is not my time. But notice what Mary did. Mary did not go passive. Mary did not go, oh well, one day it will be his time. One day he will do miracles. Mary got all of the servants together and said, right, get ready. Whatever he says to you, do it. Here is what I want you to see. Five minutes later, it became his time. It became the time. Five minutes later, the miracle happened. When you do what you should do about acting on the word of God, time moves forward and time gets accelerated.
Resting in Promises Versus Being Lazy
As it is written in Hebrews 4:11 (NKJV): “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” The question is, what is the difference between resting in God’s promises and being passive or lazy in my faith? Do we not need to take action? Often when we read in the Bible, we are dealing with the eternal, all-knowing, omniscient, omnipotent God, who is communicating things to us mortal people. At times, there will be things which appear to contradict each other. When you see those things, all you have actually got to do is zoom out. Should we be resting at peace, perfectly at peace in our faith? Yes. Should we be persistent, active, militant in our faith? Yes. What is the difference between the two? It says in Hebrews 4, let us labor, literally like a mountain climber. Let us labor to enter into this rest. It says in the Hebrews passage, he who believes has entered into rest and has ceased from his labors. But then it says, let us labor to enter into this rest. I would say there is a place in your faith where you are at perfect rest. There is a place where you know that you know that you know that you know that you know that you have got it, you are not trying to get it, you have completely got it. You have arrived in Christ Jesus. You are not laboring, you are not fighting. You have arrived. That is a great place to be. What most of us are, though, is we begin that journey of faith and we are not quite there yet. Like Abraham, we have faith, but we are battling our doubts, the realities of the world around us, the pain in our body, and that is the place where we need to fight and labor. I think there is a time in our faith where we have got to be persistent. We have got to fight. We have got to push, we have got to be militant in our faith until we come to that place of rest. Even then, I would say this, when I am in a place of perfect peace, perfect rest in my faith, I still need to be militant about staying there. I need to stay at rest and I need to not allow the things of the world to pull me off that place of rest in God. God wants us to be at peace. At rest. But he wants us to be active in our faith at the same time. There is no contradiction between the two. I hope that makes sense.
Believing in the Heart Versus the Head
As it is written in Romans 10:10 (NKJV): “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” How can I tell if I believe something in my heart versus just believing it in my head? I think I believe that, do I really believe? I can actually answer this one quite simply. When we believe in our head, we believe propositionally, somebody says something, we look at it and we go, yes, I think that is true. I agree, I adhere, I concur. I agree with that propositional truth. When we believe something in our heart, we will act on it. We will do it. I could examine a chair, I have a chair right here. I could tell you about its strength and its tensile materials and its construction. When I believe in it, I will sit on it. You can tell what you actually believe by what you really do. I really believe that I believe that I believe that if I drop this Bible, it is going to fall. Gravity will cause it to drop. I am not a gambling person because I bet on a sure thing, but I would bet you a million dollars that this will drop when I do that. Now, why do I believe that? I believe that because I have learned some things about gravity. Gravity is not a force. It is like the curvature of space time by massive objects, if you will. I know theoretically in my head that this will fall. But I have also dropped Bibles or dropped things 10,000 times in my life and I have never dropped them and seen them fly upwards, not downwards. I have never dropped them and seen them like they would in space, float. We know something is in our heart when we will act upon it. I would also say we know something is in our heart when we speak. Matthew 12:34 says from the abundance or the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. That is a really powerful truth. When something is in your heart, it will come out of your mouth. Now, it is possible to say words with your mouth that you do not believe in your heart. I can force myself. I can choose to say, God is my healer, I believe I am healed. Yet I can have a mouth-heart disconnect. I can force my mouth to say things that are not really in my heart. But when my mouth is on autopilot, when I am not controlling, volitionally choosing my words, whatever is in my heart will come out of my mouth. Whatever is in your heart comes out of your mouth. But here is a really powerful truth as well to realize, whatever is in your mouth will end up in your heart. I can choose to speak God’s word, even when I am mentally battling it. I can choose to think on God’s word. I can choose to relationally meet the Lord in his word. When I do that, eventually sooner or later, that word in my mouth will become the word in my heart. It is really interesting in Romans 10. It says, with the heart man believes unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Then it says, whosoever will believe in his heart and say with his mouth that Jesus is raised from the dead will be saved. You see, there is a place where you can start with your mouth and it ends up in your heart. There is a place where you can start with your heart and it ends up with your mouth. The two are intrinsically connected.
Faith Versus Presumption
As it is written in James 4:15 (NKJV): “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'” You shared the story about failing to get the car by faith. How do you know when you are operating in genuine faith or human presumption? Let me give you two answers. A biblical one and a relational one. Firstly, all the promises of God are for us. If you want to know whether you are in presumption or faith, my first general generic answer would be to say, go to the Bible. Are you believing based on the biblical promise, or are you simply believing based on your own desires? For me, it was a book I read. For me, it was a genuine need I had. It was not that God did not want me to have a car, but my faith was based in a book I read, not in the book, the promises of God. Firstly, go to the book, go to the promises of God. But secondly, there is still no promise. I did not open my Bible today and read a promise. Verily, I will give you a car. Oh, how cool is that? We cannot necessarily find a promise for every specific thing in the Bible when we read it in that way, but you see, I would say this. If you are not sure if you are in presumption or faith, come to Jesus. Spend time with him. Bring that matter, that thought, that question to him. Most of us, we have this disconnect where we stop really abiding in him. Our spirit abides in him 24/7 all the time. 1 Corinthians 6:17, we are locked in. We are not disconnected from him, but our soul is often disconnected from him. What often happens is we try and believe, and it is like we have not talked to the Lord about it. I think we do, it would behoove us. It would be a good thing if before we engage our faith, before we begin on a journey of faith, we really come to the Lord and say, Lord, is there anything you want to say about this? Have I got your yes and amen, your specific yes and amen to this? Lord, if you want to speak to me about presumption, here I am. I really want to, I do not want to divine that like somebody reading a horoscope. I want to hear from you, Lord, if I am wrong, if my heart is wrong, if my desires are wrong. Sometimes I will ask God for something and I will let him choose the thing. I will say, Lord, what is a car I can have that is a good car, that is your choice for me, that I can hold to the glory of God and not enter into pride. The Bible says prosperity destroys a fool. The issue is not the prosperity. The issue is the foolishness of the heart. Come to him and allow him to tell you if you are in presumption or faith and he will. I promise you, he will, 100 percent of the time.
Seasons Where Faith Feels Harder
As it is written in James 1:2-4 (NKJV): “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” You mentioned a honeymoon phase of Christianity. Is it normal to go through seasons where faith feels harder? Is that a sign I am doing something wrong? No, it is not. Firstly, God promises we will go through test and trial situations. James, the brother of Jesus, said, my brethren, count it all joy when you go through various temptations, testings, trials. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. Patience, let patience have its perfect work, let patience do its work, that you may be mature, entire, lacking nothing. The goal of God is not that you would live in trials. The goal of God is that you would be perfect or mature, entire, complete, whole, and lacking nothing. That is where God wants you to live. It says in 1 John 2, I write to you, little children, because you know your sins are forgiven. Bless your darling heart. Then he says, I write to you, young men, teenagers, you are strong, you do battle with the evil one, and you overcome him with the word of God. Then he says, I write to you, fathers, because you intimately know he who was from the beginning. God wants our faith to be tried and tested. It does not mean you are doing something wrong. It means you are growing. It means you are maturing. It means you are learning. It means you are coming to a higher place in Christ Jesus. That is a really good thing. It is not a bad thing. That is a good thing. I do not think it is wrong in any way. You should not think it wrong when you go through those times. You should actually expect to go through those times. Let me give you one last piece of advice about that, which will really help you. Decide in advance what you are going to do when you are in those trials. When you are going through a trial, it is a really bad time to rely on your emotions, to respond emotionally to what you are going through, because sometimes your emotions, you can rely on the fact that they are not reliable. You can rely on the fact that they are not good guides to what you should do. Decide in advance what you will do. There are some seasons in my life, like I decide in advance what I am going to do in the morning. Sometimes if I am going to get up really early, like to catch a flight or whatever, I am going to decide the night before. I am going to get up at this time. I will not feel like getting up at this time, but I am going to get up at this time. I am going to get out of bed. I am not going to just hang around and check this. I am going to get a shower, make a coffee, go. My point is, know when you are in a trial what you are going to do. Take those decisions beforehand. Here is how I will respond. They train pilots, airline pilots, not to fly when the weather is beautiful. They train them how to respond when everything goes wrong. It is interesting, but you could literally listen to the audio from, I think it is Captain Sully, the guy who landed the plane in the Hudson. He has still got a plane full of people with no engines working. He is not panicking. He is working the system. He is working the things that he knows what to do, what he has practiced. Now he does not know that he will not be dead in three or four minutes time. But he knows his best chance is to do what he has decided in advance he will do. My point is, decide in advance what you will do when you go through a trial. Here are the actions I will engage with. What will happen is when you are in that trial, you will not feel God emotionally, you will not feel close to him. You might not feel this is wonderful. Just keep working the system. Keep engaging with the word of God. Keep proclaiming your faith, keep worshiping God. Worship when you are in the valley of the shadow of death. Keep walking. Do not park, do not build a house in the valley. Keep walking. When you are in the valley of the shadow, shadows obliterate the sun, but you need to believe at times the sun is still there. Decide in advance what you will do. Practice doing that, and you will go through those storms, and you will come out stronger with the testimony to the glory of God.
These questions highlight the practical side of standing on God’s promises. Whether grappling with timing, the balance of rest and action, heart-level belief, distinguishing faith from presumption, or navigating harder seasons, the key is anchoring in what Christ has finished. Let us press into that reality by faith.
Selah.
Scriptures for Study: John 19:30, Hebrews 4:11, Romans 10:10, James 4:15, James 1:2-4, 2 Corinthians 1:20, Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 2:6, 1 Peter 2:24, John 1:16, Hebrews 6:12, John 2:4, John 2:5, Hebrews 4:3, Romans 4:21, Matthew 12:34, Romans 10:9, 1 Corinthians 6:17, Proverbs 10:28, 1 John 2:12-14, Psalm 23:4, Acts 27:25, Titus 1:2, 2 Peter 1:4.
10 Questions for Reflection:
- Where have I used timing as an excuse for unfulfilled promises, and how might that shift if I see them as already accomplished?
- In what areas do I need to labor more to enter God’s rest regarding his promises?
- How do my actions reveal what I truly believe in my heart about God’s word?
- What doubts might be pulling me into presumption rather than genuine faith?
- How can I better bring specific desires to the Lord before engaging my faith?
- Where have seasons of harder faith made me question if I am doing something wrong?
- What decisions can I make in advance for responding to trials in faith?
- How does speaking God’s word help move belief from my head to my heart?
- In what ways have I been militant about staying at rest in God’s promises?
- What testimony from past storms can encourage me in current challenges?
