When God created you, He made you a unique individual and He has a special plan for your life. You have a God-ordained destiny! As you pursue a personal relationship with Him, you can discover the wonderful life He has for you in Christ and become everything He’s created you to be.

Your relationship with Christ is a daily, lifelong journey, and along the way God will give you dreams, desires, and hope for change in your life. Maybe you want to see a change in your family relationships, friendships, work situation, or finances. Or you may be hoping and praying for changes to happen in your loved ones’ lives.

Whatever your hopes and dreams may be, God wants to help you fulfill His purposes in your life. But He usually won’t tell you when those things will come to pass, because you have to go through a season of preparation to be ready for them.

I remember when God put His dream in my heart in 1976 to teach the Bible to people all over the world. It seemed crazy because I was nobody from nowhere with a 12th-grade education who almost failed English, and I hadn’t been to Bible college or seminary. But I knew in my heart that God wanted to use me to preach the Gospel.

When God speaks something to your heart, as crazy as that promise may seem, you can believe it! You have a passion to do it, it’s on your mind a lot, and you will sacrifice anything to get it. From the day God revealed His call on my life, I have wanted to teach His Word more than anything else in the world.

But it didn’t happen overnight. There were years of preparation that I had to go through to get to the point where I could do what I’m doing today. It wasn’t easy, because I wanted my ministry to grow so badly and I couldn’t understand why it was taking so long. But during these years, I learned what it means to really trust God and know that He will do the best thing for me at the right time.

There are examples in the Bible of people who had to wait for God to fulfill their dreams:

· Moses wanted to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt, and he spent 40 years in the desert before he was ready.

· Joseph spent 13 years in prison for something he didn’t do before God gave him favor with Pharaoh, who gave him a position of authority over all the land of Egypt.

· David was anointed to be king 20 years before he sat on the throne.

God wants to give us favor and the ability to fulfill our destinies, and He will do so as we learn to trust His timing with a good attitude.

People are often in a hurry to reach their goals, but God is not. I’ve discovered that being frustrated about how long I have to wait will never make God hurry. God knows what we need to go through to prepare us to walk in His plans. The best thing we can do during these times is to learn to wait patiently, trusting God’s timing.

Waiting patiently is not just waiting; it’s how we act while we’re waiting. The training, or preparation, we go through in the process of reaching our dream teaches us how to trust God and wait on His timing with a good attitude.

Psalm 31:14-15 (NIV) says, “…I trust in you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands….” And Habakkuk 2:3 (AMP) says, “For the vision is yet for the appointed [future] time…. Even though it delays, wait [patiently] for it, because it will certainly come; it will not delay.”

These verses encourage us to be determined to trust God and wait on Him for His perfect timing. When it seems the dream that He’s put in your heart is delayed, you can stir up your hope in Christ for change to happen because God is faithful.

We will be tempted to try and make things happen in our own effort sometimes, but when we give in to it, we put off God’s answer even longer. Your journey may be long, but you can enjoy it if you’ll make up your mind to trust God. Don’t be moved emotionally and try to give birth to your dream prematurely.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV) tells us, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” And verse 11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time….” The changes and breakthroughs we are praying for will certainly come as we wait on God. And they will be beautiful in the right time, but not outside of God’s timing.

Choose to live in the rest of God…peaceful in the midst of the storms of life and the seasons of waiting for change. Enjoy the freedom of not having to know everything or have everything figured out. Instead, replace frustration with trust that God is good, He knows what He’s doing, and He will do the best thing for you at the right time!

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For more on this topic, order Joyce’s three-part teaching resource When, God, When? You can also contact us to receive our free magazine, Enjoying Everyday Life, by calling (800) 727-9673 or visiting www.joycemeyer.org

Joyce Meyer is a New York Times bestselling author and founder of Joyce Meyer Ministries, Inc. She has authored more than 150 books, including BATTLEFIELD OF THE MIND and OVERCOMING EVERY PROBLEM (FaithWords). She hosts the Enjoying Everyday Life program, which is broadcast to millions in over 110 languages. For more information, visit www.joycemeyer.org

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