06 Aug The God Who Goes Before

Years ago whilst reading my bible, Psalm 138:3 stood out to me quite powerfully and came alive, so I took note of it. It says: “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.” Ps 138:3 (ESV)

I’d heard it quoted before, but after reading, it felt somewhat like a promise of good things to come, but with the passing of time, I didn’t think much more of it, until my wife and I entered a difficult time of infertility.

When I first read this scripture, my automatic assumption was, this was some kind of free pass or confirmation to us that having children would be easy, however as we walked through those difficult days, it was something that we had to keep believing and holding onto. The Lord had gone before us in this, and we were still catching up. He had spoken of what would be and we needed to look ahead to that.

When the angel appeared to Zechariah with the announcement that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son (Luke 1:8-24) his response was one of unbelief because they were old and his wife was barren. He had very natural reasons in his mind that went against the truth of what the angel was declaring would actually be. The consequence of his unbelief was he was made mute until these things were fulfilled and John the Baptist was born to them and went on to do many great things.

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill his response to Mary and Martha was: “this illness does not lead to death” John 11:4 (ESV). We know Lazarus did in fact die, and was in the tomb 4 days before Jesus made it to where he was and was then miraculously resurrected. Jesus’ word had already been declared that it wouldn’t end in death.

In these two examples above and more (look at Gideon – Judges 6:11-18, Abraham & Sarah – Genesis 18:9-14, Leppers healed as they went – Luke 17:14), when the Lord speaks of what will be whether of our calling or of a future provision, healing or promise, His word goes beyond our situation as He speaks as one that has gone before us and very often does not match what is seen in the natural.

In our years of difficulty it was such an encouragement to have already received a word before we even knew we needed it, to know that God had gone before us but it was still immensely difficult to keep holding on to what He had said despite what we saw in the natural.

Through those years, it was discovered my wife had a 15cm benign tumour and stage 4 endometriosis, both of which required surgery and both of these things seemed to be a giant in the way of the word I got about being a fruitful vine. Praise God He goes before us and provides a way where there seems to be no way and also looks for ways to encourage us through the valley.

I write these words with our two year old son running around and testify that our God goes before us in all things. Believe.

Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Unsplash