Faith Forgets

My mom has a saying, “A watched pot never boils.” It means that usually when you are waiting on something, the more attention you pay to it, the longer it seems to take. The same could be said of faith.

So don’t allow your hearts to grow dull or lose your enthusiasm, but follow the example of those who fully received what God has promised because of their strong faith and patient endurance. Hebrews 6;12 (The Passion Translation, TPT)

While I agree with my mom, I have a better saying that I use, “The faith is in the waiting.” The Bible tells us that we inherit the promises of God through faith and patience. In other words, when we use our faith for something, there is usually a time element involved and we often have to stand in faith for a time before we see it manifest. And when we wait in faith, we use patience. In other words, we don’t just wait, but we wait well.

What does it look like to wait well? To borrow from my mother’s concept, we put the pot on the stove and we walk away. We don’t stand around checking it over and over. For example, if you are believing God for a bill to be paid, you ask God to pay it, thank Him for it and speak the Word over the situation. But, you don’t go back to your checking account over and over to see if there’s more money in your account. Or maybe you are standing in faith for a broken tooth to be healed. You release your faith for it, but you don’t keep going to the mirror to look at the tooth or continually run your tongue over it. You have to make your request to God and receive what you asked for by faith. That means, you go on about your business and you make yourself forget about the problem.

Is it easy to do? Not always. That’s one of the reasons we call it a fight of faith. We have to resist the temptation to keep looking to see if “it” has happened yet. And if the thought comes to check on it, just open your mouth and speak the scripture you are standing on for the promise. After a while, as you place your focus on the Lord and not on what you are believing for, you’ll see the promise has manifested.