Building a Community to Encourage, Challenge and Finish Well
Header Right
Main navigation
Monday Morning Encouragement: Are You Waiting for the “Then After?”
Are You Waiting for the “Then After?”
by Troy McLaughlin
It’s easy to quit when others write you off. When others reject you. When you don’t get the results you want.The question is, are you going to quit when others quit on you? When they think you’re a failure, or don’t show you the support you think you should get?
Are you going to wait for the “then after.”
When I was in Bible college we would have special speakers come to speak and share their stories of ministry with us. A missionary from Central America came and shared his story of ministering to a tribe in Central America for fourteen years without a single conversion.
It was fourteen years of no success. Fourteen years, and not a single person accepted the gospel message. Fourteen years of being an outsider. Fourteen years of frustration and fourteen years of no results.
By all external signs he was a failure as a missionary.
But he wasn’t a failure. Because he was moving each day, each month and each year closer to winning over the tribes trust. Also, God was moving, even if all the “outside” indicators said nothing was happening.
Through it all, he and his family kept ministering to the tribe. They kept showing up, day a after day. They kept helping, and being a part of a community that didn’t accept them. Then after fourteen years the tribe’s Chief converted, after the Chief converted, the whole tribe followed.
One day the missionary and his family were outsiders, the next day, albeit fourteen years later they were insiders, accepted, and now part of the tribe. They kept going until they reached the “then after.”
I know at times I’m not willing to wait for the “then after.”
Imagine if you waited and pushed through for every “then after.”
Imagine how much more you’d see God work and come through for you.
Imagine how much more your faith would grow.
Imagine how you’d see the world change.
It’s easy to be captivated by the instant, and not in love with the work to get to the “then after.”
Practical Takeaways:
Pray for perseverance
Ask God to show you how He sees the world
God’s always moving even when we don’t see the signs
The missionary was willing to wait, and worked for the “then after.” Are you willing to wait for the “then after”, even if it’s years, decades or a lifetime?
I pray that God would help us persevere and push through, for the “then after.”