"Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come." Proverbs 31:25
"Tomorrow" is a mixed media painting on paper.
I'm working on sticking with one of my 2025 goals that I will creatively and exhaustively use my supplies, before acquiring more!
Figuring out how to use materials that once thrilled, but then intimidated me, stretches me. It's a challenge to not keep reaching for the safe and familiar!
Stubborn habits, even in art, need changing. What wont change is the content of the artwork, flowing from continuing conversations with the Lord about biblical themes and the world around me, that intrigue me.
Proverbs 31 provides a stunning template of a godly woman. In her list of commendable qualities, there's one that's universally easy to adopt. She fears God—not with a terrified kind of fear, but a reverential awe! And from that position of profound respect, character is forged and blessing flows.
Faith is always forward looking—to a future yet ahead. We can entrust our past to Him with the same confidence as the future.
God takes our imperfections, yearnings and hopes, assuring us of a time to come when the deepest cries of our heart will be answered with absolute fairness and justice.
Sometimes that "tomorrow" comes after a short season of waiting, at other times it stretches on, just out of reach, shaking our faith to crisis levels.
People make promises they do not keep, but not God. When His promises appear to fail, it's my warped sense of time that's at fault. I set timelines for answers, and find myself disappointed upon their expiration. I then face a choice. What now? Will I hold fast or walk away and declare that trust in God is foolish?
If I've learned anything really well, it is this: the timelines I set are always too brief!
Surely I'm not alone in this! I suspect this is a human condition, since we feel so keenly the passage of time, while God exists outside time.
I remind myself of Sara's lengthy barrenness, David's Psalms of "How long, Oh Lord...?" , Joseph's disappointment in the dungeon, Caleb's wilderness wait....
It finally dawned on me that God uses TIME to teach us faith. Yes, I'm a slow learner, foolishly chomping at the bit to just get on with it!!!
When every last grain of sand in the hourglass of faith has emptied itself and my answer still seems far away, I've learned to trust God anyway! And I do that by declaring it out loud, so I can hear myself say it. "I CHOOSE TO TRUST YOU!" Anything less will send me into a downward spiral of doubt and despair!
"That's blind faith," you may scoff! Not at all. It's faith based on biblical history, and my personal experience of God's outstanding answers, granted long after I stopped expecting much, while somehow trusting Him anyway!
Trusting God, when your timeline of hope expires, qualifies you for a tomorrow yet to come, a tomorrow created by faith.
If that "tomorrow" could be expressed as a living entity, it would take its first breath of life the moment you choose to trust, when hopelessness felt more logical!
Faith in God creates tomorrows.
I don't limit myself to only the reward of heaven, but release my faith for the countless "tomorrows" to enjoy here on earth before heaven. Those "tomorrows" can be wonderful days of experiencing God in tangible ways on earth! Heaven on earth.
God imparts strength to those who choose to trust Him, when nothing makes logical sense. Faith is precious to Him. It is the currency of His kingdom.
The Proverbs 31 woman clothed herself with His strength and honor, empowered by the promise of rejoicing ahead in the "time to come!"
In the painting, twisted branches and even knottier roots push upwards for that glowing tomorrow yet ahead. Colors scream for attention, yet must remain subdued until that "time to come."
God has ordained rewards in time for believing Him and the integrity of His word. Those are times yet to come. May you qualify for them by your faith.
"storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." 1 Timothy 6: 19
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