Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave (1 Kings 8:56).

Connect Devotionals are written roughly two weeks in advance of the correlating message being given. Each week we receive Pastors Jaime’s and Alex’s notes on the coming sermon, and Editor Brian includes his notes and writing prompts on it as well. In Brian’s notes this week were some questions that I’ve been mulling over for more than a week now, and they can all be summed up in this:

Why does God’s faithfulness often take so long?

Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years from when God promised them a son to when Isaac arrived. The Israelites were in Egyptian captivity for four hundred years. From Abram to Jesus is almost 18 centuries. From Jesus to the present time is 2000 years and counting, and the atrocities humanity continues to inflict on itself keep adding up.

Why does God’s faithfulness take so long?

Faithfulness doesn’t mean everything will work out quickly or exactly the way we want it to. His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9), the God who created the universe is working even when we don’t see it (2 Corinthians 4:18), and He loves us too much to answer our prayers at any other time than the right time (Romans 8:28).

Solomon’s prayer for and blessing over the Temple in 1 Kings 8 included remembrance and celebration of generations of God’s faithfulness, and of God’s goodness in the wake of His people’s repeated unfaithfulness.

“Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses (v56).

In the waiting it was important for the Israelites to celebrate God’s faithfulness, and to remember that not one word of God’s promises had ever failed them. Not one word!

The same is true for us. Sometimes it feels like the answers to our prayers are a long time coming. When the job search drags on, when the test results aren’t what we hoped they’d be, when it’s been months and years and we just thought _____ would be better/different by now. Not one word of His good promises have ever failed you or me, and they won’t start now.

The best and truest stories take time to develop…not unlike my Connect Devotional writing this week! :) Have you been waiting for an answer to prayer for longer than you would have liked? Try making a list of all the ways He’s been faithful to you in the past, and keep going! NOT ONE WORD has ever failed.