If there was a camera that could capture near and far views of your lifetime, you could zoom out and see the value of your life experiences. You could examine a time of your life that you were restricted, suffering, or failing, and see how that painful time produced qualities for success later.

We don’t recognize the value of frustration when we’re in it. The best we can do is trust that God has our best interests in mind. If we stay committed to letting God have our lives for his purposes, we can be sure that he will release us when the time is right.

I can imagine God’s hand holding us back despite our anxiety, impatience, and confusion. He does so to set us up for long-term success. But God doesn’t kill the heart and aspiration to eventually go forward — that drive is needed to surge ahead when he removes his restraining hand, and says “Now, the time is right. Go.”

Your release is ahead. You will see your life make sense when God places you in the position he is preparing for you. What is in your heart will not be snuffed out — it will be fanned into flames when the time is right.

When your position is ready, God will make sense of your life by promoting you to that position.

What frustrates you now, will make sense then.

What you view as failure now, will make sense later.

Until then, God is causing your character, abilities, and desires to develop and grow. Your heart will continue to fill with God-approved aspirations. When he removes his restraining hand and allows you to move forward without hindrance, your aspirations will direct you according to God’s intent.

^“13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

Philippians 2:13 (NIV)

You have within you the heart to do what God has planned for you to do.

You have within you the abilities to do what God has planned for you to do.

So don’t fret the frustrations. He hasn’t removed his restraining hand yet. When he takes his hand away, you will be free to burst forth in a spirited release of all that is within you.

 

^“6 For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert.

⁷ But God is the judge; he puts down one and sets up another.”

 Psalm 75:6-7 (Jubilee Bible 2000, JUB)