Why does God seem to come through right at the last minute? He seems to like to bring the answer, or miracle, or whatever we are believing for right at the last minute. Some call this the eleventh hour.
It seems like some of the biggest prayers I have prayed, or the biggest needs I have had, and even some of the greatest pain I have experienced have been times when God seems to be taking His time; yet He shows up in the eleventh hour.
I will also say some of the greatest sacrifice—those moments of obedience you walk through even when it hurts, it costs you something, it doesn’t make sense, and you walk through anyway because God is asking something of you—they are the times God shows up right in the last minute of the eleventh hour.
Too many people run away before the eleventh hour, making all kinds of excuses. Don’t run, grow your faith through your obedience to Him. It can be painful but trust that God has a plan. We need to learn how to push through.
Instead of calling those times painful or hard testing, we should call them stretching. They stretch our faith. They stretch our capacity. They teach us patience. They teach us endurance. They teach us to persevere. They teach us to trust God for our very breath. They make us stronger. We grow.
He has great big plans for His church here on the earth but He can’t achieve those plans in people who have not allowed Him to test and grow their faith.
What is God requiring of you?
What dreams has He placed in your heart?
What has He put in your hand?
Are you being faithful with what’s in your hand right now?
These are good indications of the faith He wants to develop in you.
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way, James 1:3,4 (Message).
Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left; and your offspring will possess the nations and make the desolate cities to be inhabited, Isaiah 54:2,3 (Amplified).
