You know this, I think, but sometimes the heart needs to hear it said plainly: the God who made the sun and set it to rise at its exact appointed second, who draws the tide in and out without a moment's variance, who opens the spring flower in the very week He ordained from before the foundation of the world, this same God is keeping time for you. Not idly. Not forgetting. He is waiting to be gracious to you, and that is a different thing altogether from a cold delay. It is a Divine waiting, full of tenderness, full of purpose. He knows the ache of these five years; He has gathered every tear in His bottle. Not one sigh has escaped His notice. And He is not waiting because He is reluctant, but because He is preparing something so exactly fitted to your longing that when you see it you will understand why the answer could not have come a day sooner.
I want to give you a picture to carry with you. You have seen a farmer after the seed is sown. He does not pace the furrows in a fever, wringing his hands because the green shoot has not broken through by Tuesday. He knows the seed is in the earth; he knows the rain and the sun have their work to do in the dark, hidden places. And so he waits, not with a passive, helpless waiting, but with a confident, restful hope, because he trusts the life that is in the seed and the faithfulness of the God who gives the harvest. Your longing for a child is a seed sown in the very heart of God. It is not lost. It is not forgotten. It is doing what all holy seeds do in the dark, it is growing roots downward while you wait for fruit upward. The quiet, hidden work is real work, and the Lord of the harvest has not left His field.
I know the temptation to snatch at unripe fruit, to meddle with your own deliverance, to try some crooked path when the straight road seems so very long. But you have not done that, dear sister, and that is no small triumph of grace. The Lord who has kept you from running ahead of Him will keep you still. There is a holy courage in simply staying put and saying, “My soul, wait thou only upon God.” Not upon a doctor’s report, though God uses means and we bless Him for them. Not upon the shifting sands of your own hopes and fears. But upon God Himself. Make Him your only object, your only expectation. Fix your eyes so fully upon Jesus that the calendar on the wall and the opinions of men grow strangely dim. He is the summit of your desires, and a child is a gift He will give in His own way and time. And whether He gives that gift through the ordinary means or by some startling display of His power, it will be from Him, and that will be the sweetest part of it all.
Here is a word to steady you when the waiting presses hardest. The Lord has a “therefore” for His delays. We cannot always read it, but it is always there. With us, a delay often feels like a denial. With Him, the waiting time is often the very workshop where He fashions the blessing large enough to hold all the grace He intends to pour into it. He is not only preparing the child for you; He is preparing you for the child. He is deepening your patience, rooting your faith, hollowing out your heart so that it may hold more of His own love. And He is teaching you something precious about His Covenant, that it stands on His promise, not on your performance. He has said, “I will,” and those two syllables are mightier than mountains.
So when the black-edged envelope of another month’s disappointment arrives, do not read it as if God had forgotten to write to you. He has written His love-letter upon your heart, and the substance of it is this: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” Your name is graven on the palms of His hands, and He cannot forget you. Even in the deep waters, when your soul seems to have found a sepulcher, remember Jonah. Out of the belly of the fish he cried, and the cry that came from the depths brought him up to the dry land. Keep crying out. Let your prayer be the voice of a living hope, and it will not be long before you stand upon the shore with a song of deliverance.
And do not suppose that your faith is no faith because you cannot always feel the joy of assurance. A trembling hand that clutches Christ is as truly fastened to Him as a bold hand that never shook. You may cling to Him with the desperate grip of one who says, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him,” and that is faith of the truest sort. Faith is not the absence of tears; it is the presence of a steady gaze toward Jesus even when the eyes are swimming. So do not despise the days of weakness. Even the apostles, when they felt the weight of what they were called to do, did not pretend to possess the strength in themselves. They simply looked to their Master and breathed, “Increase our faith.” That is a prayer He loves to answer. Breathe it often. It is a short road to strength.
The fact is, your case is not too hard for Him. No, it is precisely the sort of case that displays His glory. If everything were easy and swift and natural, men might talk of chance and biology. But when God steps into a situation that has “hopeless” written across it in great letters and says, “I will do a new thing,” then all the world must stand back and confess that this is the finger of God. The very impossibility of it is the platform for His power. The stone that sealed Lazarus in the cave, the four days of decay, these were not obstacles to Jesus; they were the dark background against which His resurrection power shone the brighter. So your long years of waiting are not a locked door; they are the cave where Jesus means to stand and call life out of the barren place. Do not fear the stench of dead hopes. He is not put off by it. He is drawn to it, for where should the Great Physician be found but among the sick, the waiting, the longing hearts that need His healing hand?
In the meanwhile, let Him be enough for you. I know you yearn for the child. That yearning is God-given, and it is holy. But let your soul make Him its only object, and you will find that He is better than any gift He could give. The fountain is more than the stream. And when the stream does come, as I believe it shall, in His good time, you will have learned to drink from the fountain first, and that lesson will sweeten every earthly joy. You will be able to look at that little face and say, “I have God to thank for you, and I have God to give you back to, and I have God to uphold me whether you stay or go.” That is a rich place to stand.
Now let us turn all this talking into praying, for the Lord is near.
Lord Jesus, You who walked among the sick folk at Bethesda and fixed Your eye upon one man who had waited so long, look now upon this dear woman who waits for the blessing of motherhood. You know the ache of her heart, the silent tears in the night, the hope that rises and falls and rises again. You have a child planned for her, a person known to You from eternity, for whom You died and whom You will bring into her arms in Your own perfect hour. Stir the waters, Lord, of her body and her circumstances. Do what no physician can do. And while she waits, be her portion. Be her husband’s strength. Let patience have its perfect work, that she may be entire, lacking nothing. And when the answer comes, let joy overflow and faith be turned to sight, and let Your name be glorified as the God who hears prayer and keeps His Covenant. Until that day, hold her fast, and let her hold fast to You, for You are her life and her exceeding great reward. Amen.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. Bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
be-an-encourager.blogspot.com
