Lately we’ve been challenged by many things at once. A year ago my husband Randy, started his own business. Three weeks later he ended up in the hospital with a life-threatening diagnosis. How were we supposed to survive with no income and so many health issues?
Now, a year later, we are still trying to make a go of it. The business is growing slowly, Randy’s energy is returning slowly, and the income is coming in slowly. “Slowly” isn’t always an easy pace to accept.
We know that God has promised to provide. Sometimes we look at the numbers and shake our heads wondering just how it will all work. Then we remember something that God showed Randy a few months ago. He was feeling like he should make a business decision that seemed a little scary to us. It would require even more trust than we felt we already had.
But God gave Randy a picture of floodgates. Now, if you had lived in Iowa when we did in 2008 you would understand what it feels like to think about floods and the massive structures that hold back the water. As the water levels rose hourly, we anxiously listened to the news to hear if the water would breach the spillway and come rushing down upon the city. It did finally happen and those downstream braced themselves for the arrival of millions of gallons of water with no way to protect their homes. It was a scary time.
But the picture God gave Randy was of a different kind of flood. It was a picture of the Father opening the floodgates of blessing. If we chose to be obedient and do what He had instructed us to do He promised to open the floodgates. We are standing on that promise now. We have to believe the gates have been opened. We don’t see the signs yet. There has been no miraculous inflow of income. No huge jump in Randy’s energy levels. We are still just plodding along…waiting.
All we have is the promise. But we know from our Iowa experience that when the floodgates spill what they have been holding back, it takes a while for everything to arrive downstream. We believe it’s coming and are waiting to see the first glimpse of His blessings coming around the bend in the river. Now, when it looks like things will never work out we have a signal to help us remember God’s promise. We look at each other and just say, “floodgates.”
What have you been waiting for? Have you been trusting God for a promise and see no evidence of His answer? Remember the floodgates and keep on trusting. It may be just around the bend.
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” – Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV)