Praying in FaithExemplo

Faith for a Lifetime

As a young man, George Müller applied to be a missionary through the London Missionary Society. Things never quite worked out due to circumstances, timing, conviction, and even opposition from family members. In fact, this German man ended up living in England most of his life. Still, God enabled him to have a tremendously fruitful ministry. Müller served faithfully for years, founding and operating orphanages and schools that had enormous impact. But his desire to be a missionary—and his faith and prayers toward that end—seemed unfulfilled.

Faith functions like a seed planted. Sometimes seeds take a very long time to grow to full maturity. Müller knew that dynamic well—his faith was rewarded tangibly and quite often over the years. Those seeds sown early in his adulthood bore fruit much later. He traveled the world speaking about faith, going to places even beyond his early missionary dreams. God had opened and shut doors according to his timing, but through it all, Müller’s faith never faltered. 

Many Christians live with disappointment for years, assuming faith in a particular area just didn’t work out. Perhaps it didn’t, and perhaps it never will in exactly the expected way. But that doesn’t mean God won’t honor it somehow. Disappointment is a middle-of-the-story phenomenon because it assumes an unhappy conclusion before we’ve reached the end of the story. This is especially true for believers whose end-of-story prophecies and promises are remarkably gratifying. Yes, we may be disenchanted with the way things have worked out—many of us don’t spend our lives walking out fulfilled dreams and expectations—but we still haven’t seen what God is going to do with our faith. We have no business expecting disappointment in the end.

Don’t walk away from the seeds of faith you’ve planted. You may have forgotten to tend to them, but God hasn’t. One way or another, they will bear fruit. You may have prayed in faith for a particular season, but God has applied it over a lifetime...and he is still writing a beautiful story with it. 

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