Filling God’s Gaps
Read | Genesis 16:1-6
Has God given you a vision that is as yet unfulfilled? Has He assigned you a task that remains incomplete, though you’ve done everything you know to do?
When the Lord creates “gaps” in our life, such waiting periods are designed for His specific purposes. Sometimes they are meant to prepare us for His pre-ordained answer. He may be waiting to fulfill His plan, because in the meantime there is something He needs to take care of—perhaps a rough edge that must be smoothed or a relationship that must be restored—before He will fully accomplish His purposes. He may also be testing our faith by plumbing its depths and expanding its borders so He can prove Himself faithful. Or He may be using a dry period as an occasion for correction: God will not reward a saint who is living in rebellion.
Oswald Chambers advises us to wait upon the Lord while He prepares us for His answers. It is imperative that we pray and trust God during these periods. We should not act until we’re certain that we have heard from Him. In fact, it can be dangerous to listen to others instead of the Lord. Even people with godly intentions can be wrong—look at Abram’s poor decisions after listening to the seemingly solid logic of his wife. The result was that Sarai’s handmaiden Hagar conceived Abram’s child, which certainly was not part of the Lord’s preferred plan.
Anything other than God’s plan carried out God’s way and in God’s timing amounts to self-reliance. Depend on His Spirit when deciding how to proceed; any other course of action can lead to serious and lasting repercussions.
Charles Stanley
