“God’s going to bless you.” “God will open up doors of opportunities for you and your family.” “God will take back what the enemy stole from you.” Ok, cool but when?

I’m a Christian and the most important aspect of Christianity is faith. You need faith to believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and savior and you need faith to trust that God will do what He said He’ll do.

Ok, so I’ve done the whole believing and trusting thing but there’s only one problem: God is taking too long.

When we’re going through hardships in life, our first instinct is to run. Run as fast as you can and when that doesn’t work, we stand in front of the problem asking God to get us out of it.

But if you have enough wisdom to know that in every problem, there’s a lesson to be learned, your next question will be, “God, when are you going to help me.”

I think its human nature to want to know the ‘when’ in every situation. If we start a new job, we want to know when we’re going to get paid, we want to know when a package ordered online will be delivered and so on and so forth.

We build our lives around the ‘when’ so that we can plan accordingly. We want to know when to expect what we’re expecting. We feel more comfortable knowing what’s ahead but that contradicts the very definition of faith which is believing without seeing.

When we’re going through hardships in life, whether it be sickness, unemployment, heartbreak or whatever, its important not to focus on the actual problem because if you focus on the problem, all you’ll see is the problem.

God uses the hardships we face to teach us and to prepare us for the next step in our lives.

So, while we’re asking God when is it going to be over, we’re completely focused on the issue therefore,  missing the lesson we are to learn from it.

You have to pass the test in order to advance to the next step. So, asking God ‘when’ is a clear indicator that you’re not ready to move on.

Did you know that God uses hardships to prepare us for blessings? When God trusts you with more, He’ll give you more. But on the flip side of the abundance of blessings, there’s an even bigger demon waiting to attack you. “New level, different devil.”

So why then do we keep asking God when?

What if God is teaching you patience? Asking Him ‘when’ will just prolong the test. Or what if God is protecting you from something you think you’re ready for?

Instead of asking God ‘when’, try asking Him what He wants you to learn from whatever situation you want relief from.

Trust me, He’ll answer you.

Xo,

Shiloh