Saturday … what must that Saturday have been like for Jesus’ disciples? How deep the tension between Christ’s promises and the harsh, brutal reality of His crucifixion. Jesus was dead. How could this have happened? I imagine that as fear gripped the disciples’ hearts, it must have seemed that their expectations for the future had died with Him. The awkward, deafening silence from heaven loomed like a dark cloud over everything they had hoped for. Where would they go now? What would they do? Had Jesus spoken truth, or had they been foolish to believe? One thing they couldn’t do was deny their experience of Jesus. Blind eyes saw, the lame walked, the once dead were alive.
Unlike the disciples, on this side of Calvary, we have the incredible privilege of knowing how God’s Easter story ends. Jesus rose from the dead, and in so doing confirmed that not only was everything He had said true, but also who He said He was…The Son of God.
Looking back, I realize that since I became a believer in Jesus Christ (40 years ago); I have often found myself in those “middle moments” … between hope and realization, between expectancy and fulfillment. Hoping in a promise God whispered to my heart and that glorious moment His promise became reality. Waiting on God.
I’ve been in the “middle” a lot over the years. In those times, which have literally been years more often than months or days, I’ve learned that God is much more concerned with who I become as I wait in the silence of the “middle,” than when I actually receive His promise that I’ve waited for. Could this be what the author of Hebrews meant when he explained that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”? (Heb 11:1) I believe so, for it seems that faith isn’t really faith at all until it’s tested. For me, until then, it was merely a belief. But now, as I wait in the “Saturday’s” of life, believing that every Word of God is true and also that every Word of God contains within it the power to accomplish all that God promises, My faith has moved from head knowledge to a knowing in my heart and a deepening trust in God’s faithfulness that transcends my circumstances. It is only in this place of trust that waiting has strengthened the intimacy of my relationship with Jesus, and I’ve found rest in the “Saturdays” of life…no matter how long they may last.
Happy Saturday my friends … I pray that you never lose sight of the reality that Sunday’s coming!
Maureen is an ordained minister in the Foursquare Church and a Certified John Maxwell Team Coach, Speaker and Trainer. Along with her husband Lance, she serves as a member of the Servant’s Council at The Church on the Way, where they also provide pastoral leadership for the Grief Recovery Ministries.
