Fast Like DanielSample

Stay Expectant

I hate waiting. I don’t like to wait in line, and I despise delayed flights, slow elevators, and congested traffic. The only thing I don’t mind waiting on is my wife. She often runs a little late, but she’s always right on time. Can I get a witness? #BrowniePoints!

The problem is, we often have to wait on God for answers to prayers. 

God’s timing is not our timing, and there is exactly nothing we can do to speed Him up—or slow Him down. His timing is always perfect, because His ways are higher than our ways (see Isaiah 55:8-9). His timing is a gazillion times more perfect than the invisible movement of the finest Rolex watch.

It might be tempting to think that “really spiritual” people get their answers from God quicker—so if we get “really spiritual,” maybe we can move things along a little. But it’s not true, as you’ll see in today’s reading.

This incredibly spiritual man has been praying and fasting for three weeks, yet he hears nothing…until the angel Gabriel shows up in person to give Daniel his answer. The angel tells him God sent His answer on the first day—but he’d been withheld. Daniel had to wait twenty-one days to receive it.

I ask you to notice that Daniel did not get discouraged and lose his attitude of expectation when his answer didn't come right away. He just kept right on fasting and praying.

I know people who have been waiting for years for their answers. Look at the life of Abraham—that guy waited for decades, yet his faith did not waiver. Hebrews 11:13 says that heroes of the faith, like Abraham, were still living in faith when they died even though they didn’t get the things God promised but only saw those things from a distance. They stayed full of expectation for years and decades. 

I want that to be said of me—not because I want to wait, but because God’s answers are always worth waiting for.

This reading plan is three weeks. We can stay expectant for three weeks, right? Your answers may not take three weeks, or it could be longer. But breakthrough is coming. Keep your eyes on Him, not the calendar. Keep fasting, keep praying, keep shining. Don’t lose hope, and stay expectant my friend. 

God’s answers are coming.