For quite some time, everywhere I looked I would see the number 11:11. I saw "ones" everywhere. They would appear on clocks, timetables, radios, photographs, receipts, and hotel room doors. I would glance at the clock on my phone only once or twice a day, and if the time wasn’t 11:11, it would be 1:11 or 11:01. It could have been a coincidence, but somehow I knew that it wasn’t.
Whenever I asked God what it meant, I would only get a smile in return. I happened to be in one of the most difficult seasons of my life, and every time I saw 11:11, it reminded me that He was here with me, and that was all I needed. Sometimes seeing the number would make me laugh out loud; sometimes it would make me cry. It never failed, however, to move my heart and bring my focus back to the reality that God is good and His promises are true for my life.
One day during this time, I walked into the bathroom at my parent’s home in Southern England. Some poor, unsuspecting male in the family had left the toilet seat up. I was livid. So furious, in fact, that even in my state of blind rage I could see that my anger was vastly out of proportion to the situation at hand.
I immediately looked heavenward and asked Papa what was going on. Why was I so angry? The answer came back: “Because you ARE angry.”
As I heard His words, I had the startling realization that I had been feeling constantly angry for a long time. I asked Him why and His answer stunned me. “You are angry with me, because your life hasn’t worked out the way you thought it would.” I was incredulous. After all, wasn’t He my closest friend and constant support through this dark season? Yet, at the same time, I knew it was true. I was undone. The toilet seat was not the object of my pain; my loss of trust in God was.
Sarah in Genesis has long been my hero, so when I finally found my 11:11 in the book of Hebrews, I was captured by the simplicity and power found in this statement about faith:
"For [Sarah] considered Him faithful who had promised."
Faithfulness is the source of faith. A promise has only as much value as the person making it. In evaluating his words to us, we are actually judging whether or not we believe that God is trustworthy. Faith is not spelt R-I-S-K. It is spelt T-R-U-S-T. Unless, of course, you consider God to be a risky bet.
Every promise and dream for your life is anchored in the level of trust you have in God. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." It is our knowledge of His faithfulness that gives us assurance of the promises He has made. This is faith: judging Him faithful who has promised.
If we do not have faith in Him, our belief in His promises are based on what we can currently see happening around us. This, as I experienced, often results in our feeling as though the carpet has been pulled out from under our feet. Faith is essential because in the day when you cannot see the promises for your life, your trust in Him has to be your guarantee. We must have ‘the conviction of things unseen.’
When trust is real in your heart, hope is never deferred. Your hope for the promises He has spoken to you is secured in who He is, not your circumstances. This is faith. We can have confidence in a promise before we see it become a reality, because the one who has made the promise is the ultimate assurance.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a promise realised is the tree of life.
It is not the absence of fulfilled promises that ‘makes the heart sick,’ but when hope itself is deferred. It is easy to be hope-full continually when you trust the one that promises good things. We realise His promises are assured and it is our tree of life.
