If the vision tarries, wait for it—God is the one who makes things grow

How often do we put undue pressure on ourselves trying to do great things for God? We push and strive, and try to achieve the vision and desire he’s put in our heart.

Yes, ministry can be hard work, just like tilling the ground and pulling up weeds for a garden, but our efforts get misplaced when we think that it’s up to us to make those seeds grow.

We try to rush things along, to drive people towards a destination, all while forgetting that it’s God who started this journey in the first place. What would it look like to show up consistently? To make time for the things that matter: time in God’s presence, relationship with our family, with the people around us? To have the margin to sit quietly and listen to what God’s spirit is speaking to our hearts?

We have a grand vision in our head, that is well and good, but when the vision doesn’t show up, we lose heart. We stop or worse—we push harder, trying to achieve in our own strength what was birthed in the spirit.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time. It hastens to the end and will not fail. If it should be slow in coming, wait for it, For it will surely come—it will not delay.”
—Habakkuk 2:3

Maybe God’s given you a big vision, but it’s not yet the appointed time. What if your job is to continue to show up, to speak life and truth, to tend the soil, to water, and wait with hopeful anticipation for God to makes thing grow when the conditions are ripe?

We don’t like this, because it means that we aren’t in control. It requires a surrender to our own vision, to our own expectations and desire. It demands a faithful trust in God—that he’s sovereign and in control of our lives. It suggests an active trust that demands our following, relinquishing our need to lead and instead hand over the reigns to the King of the universe.

We make our plans, we lead, we take steps, but we must keep our hearts open to the path that God is leading us down. The journey is the battle—a lifetime of growing our faith and trusting that the vision God has put in our hearts and the seeds we plant because of that vision will bear fruit.

It may not happen in our timeline or the way we expect it to happen. We may face setbacks and challenges. We may get tired and exhausted. We may be tempted to lose hope.

But if the vision feels slow in coming, we should wait for it, consistently showing up, painting the picture of a future that could be but is not yet, planting seeds, and investing time into relationships.

For at the appointed time, the vision will surely come and it will will not delay.