“As for me, I look to the LORD for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me.”
Micah 7:7 NLT
Patience is not one of my spiritual gifts. When I look to the LORD for help, waiting confidently, is a challenge for me. As we head into Spring, cherry blossom trees in my neighborhood are beautifully blooming, reminding me of a profound revelation God gave me during my devotion time a couple of years ago. Spring of 2019 was a difficult time for our family. My husband had been out of work for a year. He was feeling discouraged in his job search. We both worried about our financial situation. March 13th was a particularly rough day. While pulling into our driveway, I happened to notice our neighbor’s cherry blossom tree was full of pretty pink blossoms, while our tree branches were still bare. I felt God saying that Spring would come for us, but we needed to be patient. On April 3rd, I noticed little buds of life starting to appear on our tree. At the same time, Ted was getting strong potential leads for a new job. A few weeks later, our tree was brilliantly alive but, instead of cherry blossoms as I expected, the tree was full of Japanese maple leaves. (Sad but true, I had no idea what kind of tree was in my front yard.)
Sometimes we pray to God expecting a specific outcome, but God has something completely different in store for us. One of the hardest parts about trusting God is that we must understand that His plan may not be the plan we have imagined. We have to trust that His plan is better. He is all-knowing. We are not. On April 26th, just after my Japanese maple had shown its Spring glory, this verse was part of my Bible app devotional:
“Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.”
Proverbs 11:28 NIV
I literally dropped my phone. I felt God telling me, we would thrive. We needed to trust Him and His plan for us. It may look different than what I expected, but we would thrive. The following months involved many exciting changes for our family, including new jobs for both Ted and me. Now every year when the branches of the trees spring with new life, it takes me back to that morning, in a hard season, when God spoke so clearly, reminding me of the importance of trusting His plan and His timing above my own.
