How Do You Wait?
Hey family! Though I just heard that the court pushed back my custody hearing again. First from January 9, 2026 to March 27, 2026. Now by another 42 days until May 8, 2026. Surprisingly, I’m feeling at peace and patient. I know it’s out of my control. There’s nothing that I did or didn’t do to make this delay.
While I was driving to men’s discipleship group the night I heard the news, the sticker on the car in front of me said, “Please be patient.” It was surely God communicating with me.
Earlier that morning, I let out all the tears and deep guttural sobs as I worshipped prostrate with head on the floor. I cried out, and our Father, in His gentle way, spoke back.
Has God ever spoken to you that way? There are several places in the Bible where the writer exhorts its readers to “be patient.” But this was different. It wasn’t a command or exhortation. It was like God was making a request. “Tom, I know you are suffering right now. Can you please be patient with me a little longer as I continue to work in your circumstances? I’m walking with you now.”
As I grow in intimacy with our Father, will you continue to join me in prayer as you have so faithfully been doing? It feels like a setback for all of us but this 42 days number is too exact to be a coincidence. It’s a number of a desert season. It’s a number for fasting and prayer. It’s a number where God shows up.
I may not know the “why” behind the court’s decision, but I do know what God’s purpose is for me. It’s a season where I will grow deeper in love with God Himself - not for changed circumstances. It’s so that I will grow in heart-character. As I persevere, it will produce character, and character hope. My heart will be a large container to hold and pour out His love onto others. It will be a time to become passionate about his heart for revival and missions, for His glory.
I know that God will sustain me through this time by His grace. I know this because it has been sustaining grace that has kept me going so far.
We all want deliverance - victorious answer to prayer. But what about sustenance? It’s like that daily bread the Israelites received (manna) in the desert for 40 years. Will I complain about sustaining grace as the Israelites complained about manna?
Sustaining grace draws me closer to Jesus. It keeps me relying on him. To thirst and hunger for him. Will I scorn that type of grace? How can I? It has drawn me closer to my Lord. It has taught and molded me so much for the decades of my life.
I hear often that I should remember God’s faithfulness of the past. As I remember those times, I take a step back and see the whole story of my life. How God never abandoned me. That he was faithful even though I was faithless. That he provided for me when I didn’t even acknowledge him or thank him for his miraculous daily provision. It’s this sustaining grace that softens my heart so that I can see and understand his purpose for me.
This will be a time when I live out what I say I believe.
“ADONAI will guide you;
he will satisfy your needs in the desert,
he will renew the strength in your limbs;
so that you will be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.”
Isaiah 58:11 CJB
