faith for the middle

It is easy to have faith at the start of something. Having faith at the start and the end is no problem; the real challenge is having faith in the middle. The start is fun, the end is exciting, but the middle can often be messy, my question for you to ponder is will you have faith for the middle?

When you have obeyed God when you've opened your hands, you've let go of something and now you're waiting for your miracle, for your promise. Will you have faith for the middle when it's not happening the way you thought, and now it seems your magnificent plans are going in reverse.

Psalm 23:4 says,

'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; for you will comfort me.'

The keyword here is through. You are not staying there; you are going through it. Changing your perspective and expectation on what the middle should look like and reminding yourself it is only temporary is life-altering.

I love this verse! I love that David didn't write I stay in the valley, I set up camp in the valley, I build my home in the valley. He said I don't settle in the middle.

God promises us not that we won't face fear but that He will be with us through the beginning, middle and end. Even when there looks like there is no way He will make a way. When you read through the Scriptures, you read about great heroes of faith and that they all shared one common denominator, they all had faith for the middle. When it looked impossible, the promise seemed a long way off, they kept moving forward, knowing that it was a part of the process.

David could have said God, well you promised me that I would be the king, but you didn't tell me that I would have to face a giant twice my size, you left that detail out. You didn't tell me that King Saul would chase me through the desert and try to kill me, you left that detail out too.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes, well most of the time God leaves out certain details on purpose? There's a reason that we don't know all the details; we wouldn't move forward into the fullness of our destiny, we wouldn't obey and have faith to step out.

I have never met anyone that likes adversity, we like to be comfortable, we like convenience, but you won't become all you were created to be without walking through disappointments, without interruptions, without facing the unknown and the struggles that it can bring.

The middle is where our endurance is tested, where our resilience is built. It causes our faith to be stretched, to grow & develop David could have said, "I'll never take the throne. I'm but a mere shepherd boy, from a low-income family. I don't have the gifts, the connections, or the experience, I don't even think I have the faith." But God is not dependent on what you don't have. When He breathed His breath into humanity He also provided and readied us with everything so when we ask in His name that He will do it (John 14:13-14).

When all you see is lack and discouragement remember, the grace of God in and on your life will more than make up for it. His anointing on your life will cause you to go further than people that have more talent than you do.

Life, it's a funny thing! Things don't always work out the way we planned them to, right? You thought it would be the best part of your life, but you came down with an illness, somebody walked away and hurt you, the business didn't make it; you hit one of those flat days or those seasons.

How do we navigate the middle? How do we walk through it?

Gain A Healthy Perspective on What the Middle Is

The middle: it's not the end, it's not permanent, it is just a step along the way. Let's not make the temporary become permanent. this is where many people miss it, this is where so many of us give up in the middle. When the current circumstance or situation is all you focus on you lose perspective of what God is doing in the long term.

Commit to not settling in the middle, don't waste time there. I know we all have moments of frustration but learn to zoom out and gain a Godly perspective. See what God is doing on the journey, not just the circumstance.

Keep Sight of What God Promised

When God brought the Israelites out of slavery, they were headed toward the promised land. He got them started, but in the middle, I love that God didn't just abandon them. He didn't say, "I gave you the promise now you're on your own, good luck in the middle." No, all along the way, God provided for them, He gave them daily bread (manna) from heaven. When they were thirsty, and couldn't find a stream, God brought water out of a rock. He showed them that He was not just the God of the start, not just the God of the end, but the God of the middle.

There may be some Red Seas in your path, and you feel like you're stuck. The good news is, God knows how to part the waters. He will make a way; He always has and always will. Don't be discouraged by the process. I encourage you and declare that you are not staying there; you are only passing through, you are coming out. Have faith in the middle. He is not only the God of the start, not the God of the end, He is the God of the middle.

Honour the season that you're in

Craig Groeschel says "you can have faith or control, but you can't have both. Faith isn't a blanket statement." You don't just choose once to have faith and forget about it. It is a day by day, moment by moment set of choices.

If I can encourage you to do only one thing it would be to be intentional about the choices you make. I will choose to trust that God will provide, I will choose not to panic, I will choose to allow God to refine me, I will honour this season because this is the preparation, I need to step into the next season.

Don't be so eager to get out of the middle that your character is underdeveloped, and your faith is brittle. So many people are looking to move through the middle as quickly as possible.

It was in the desert that the Israelites learnt to exercise their faith, it's in the middle that they learnt obedience. It was in the middle that they had their character challenged and shaped. You know respect and honour are born out of love and trust, trust that God is using the middle to grow and develop us. Quite often, clarity brings calm, it's easy for us to be overwhelmed by our circumstances. So don't choose the height of your emotions, in the height of the situation. Trust that God is working in and through your season and remember that wild things happen in stillness and surrender.