2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Here’s a hard truth. Sometimes God says, “No.” He doesn’t explain it when you pray and pray for something and it doesn’t come to be. He just asks you to trust Him and believe that He has a better plan for you.

But waiting on a better plan can be difficult!

Think about the greats of the Bible who had to wait a long time for God’s purpose for their lives: Moses (40 years); David (arguably 15 years of being pursued by a jealous, crazy king); Zechariah (99 years old) and Elizabeth (88 years old) before they had John the Baptist; and Noah (estimates say he was told to build the Ark 55-75 years before the Flood). I think you get the picture. Waiting for a promise to be fulfilled can take a long time and takes consistent faith.

But the thing about God’s timing is that He always keeps His promises. They may not look like anything you can imagine, but He has a purpose and a plan and you are part of it.

Reality steals from the faithful by saying that God stopped talking a long time ago. There’s a strand of theology called progressive revelation. This simply means that God has continued talking to His children over time.

Reality can tell you that God stopped talking when the Bible was finalized. It can tell you that the last people He spoke with were the apostles. That reality is a false reality and here’s why:

1. God said His Word wouldn’t come back void. In Isaiah 55:11 He says, “so is my word that goes out from my mouth:  It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
2. If you prayed this morning, you spoke to God. Like the hymn says, “He walks with me, and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own.”
3. He is the LIVING God.

Reality tells us that we can’t enjoy the blessings he bestows upon His children. But that’s false too. We shouldn’t feel guilty for what the Lord has done. Even in the exile of Israel, God told His children (ones in exile in Babylon):

Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. (Jeremiah 29:5-7, NIV)

God wants you to thrive and live, not hide behind what you see in your circumstances today.

Here are five tips for keeping your balance with reality and possibility: 

1. Stop thinking you don’t deserve what God has given you. You may not be able to justify your blessings, but you don’t have to explain them. A simple answer—Jesus believes in the possibility of me.
2. Become a contemplative Christian. As David says in his famous Psalm 119, “I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees: I will not neglect your Word.” As one commentator says, “Read God’s word until it reads you.” Life is always going to juxtapose you between reality and possibility. This meditation puts possibility ahead of reality.
3. Believe that every new day is a day for possibility. His mercies are new every morning after all.
4. Don’t just thank God for changing your reality. Thank God for giving you possibility—also known as hope.
5. Remember that you can’t improve on what Jesus has already done. You have salvation, grace, and freedom from sin because you are HIS.

Now, go live for possibility because that’s what God wants for you.