Learning to Believe the Best is Yet to Come Blogpost #32

Last Christmas, my dear friend Mel gave me this gift of “The best is yet to come” wall art with a corresponding jar of mustard seeds. Although I couldn’t fully grasp the importance of these reminders yet, the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart that I needed to hold tight to this truth. Knowing my tender hearted, spirit filled friend, this was more than a thoughtful gift, this was direct confirmation from the Lord Himself. We only needed faith the size of one tiny mustard seed in order for the Lord to move mountains. With Jesus, His best is always yet to come.

As we were headed into this season of new beginnings with joyful anticipation, I even questioned the Lord with why I would need this reminder? Of course the best is yet to come; why would I doubt it? 

As the days turned into weeks and then turned into months, there were many moments over the last year that I questioned if “the best” really yet to come? 

• When the war in Ukraine sent building prices skyrocketing to even higher than “Covid crazy” heights, we doubted if we could really build our forever home in this season.   
• When many friends told us that our house would sell quickly, but the weeks and months started ticking by without any offers on our house, we wondered if we missed the “sweet spot” to sell our house in this unpredictable housing market.

Throughout all of the “what ifs?” and “will this work?” questions tumbling through our minds, the phrase “the best is yet to come” kept softly repeating in my soul. 

For the past year, I have been journeying alongside the Israelites, starting when my Bible study friends and I studied the book of Numbers together. Then this summer, I started following along with the Bible Recap with Tara Leigh Cobble to read the Bible chronologically in a year. I questioned whether I would really want to start back over in Genesis after spending extended time in the Old Testament in the fall, but I felt the Holy Spirit saying to my soul, “Trust me. Start back at the beginning.” 

As I found myself journeying with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their extended families through the Israelites’ time in Exodus, I finally made it back through Numbers again. This time as I read these familiar chapters, I felt the Lord say to my soul, “Are you going to be like the 10 Israelites spies who doubted? Do you want to spend 40 years wandering like they did without getting to experience the Promised Land or are you ready to believe me? Will you trust me like Joshua and Caleb, the other two spies, did and believe I have prepared your Promised Land?” 

These gentle promptings from the Lord stopped me literally in my tracks. I like to listen to the Bible Recap’s daily Bible reading and accompanying podcast while I jog each morning. At this moment, I literally stopped jogging and told the Lord “Yes, I want to trust you like Joshua and Caleb did.” 

Then the Lord pressed upon my heart, “Delete the Zillow app off your phone. Stop trying to figure out another housing option for your family and trust that I’ve got this already figured out. You will be able to build on your family’s land.” 

Side note: I fully realize that the Promised Land that God promised the Israelites in the Old Testament is not located in our hometown next to our families. However, I also know that the Lord uses these examples in His word to show us connections to our “here and now” and what is happening in our lives. That’s one of the most amazing things about His word. God’s words truly are living and active, just like in Hebrews 4:12.

As I stopped mid jog, I paused the podcast and immediately deleted the Zillow app off my phone. Instantly, a peace only the Holy Spirit could give settled over my soul, and I knew that God was already going before our family just like He did for the Israelites. 

Just four days later, the Lord answered our prayers in a way that couldn’t be chalked up to coincidence or good luck. Within 48 hours, we received and accepted an offer to sell our Bolivar house and began the quick two week process of getting the rest of our furniture and belongings moved to our hometown. We also received and accepted a bid within our budget to begin building our home to begin this spring. Only the Lord could make all of those things happen in the way that it happened. As it all started falling into place, my husband teasingly asked me, “Why didn’t you delete Zillow off your phone months ago?!”  

I share all of this to say, to the Lord be the glory-it’s nothing Nathan or I could have done to make all of those pieces to fall into place at the same time when all of our months of brainstorming, problem solving, and striving weren’t producing the results we had hoped for. It was time for us to step back and watch the Lord open the right doors. This is the Lord’s plan for our family and not Nathan and Kallie’s plan. Through this journey, we hope our children saw God’s loving hand through every part. He used even our most disappointing moments to draw us closer to Him and each other. We pray that this season also helps them look for God’s provisions throughout their lives, too, even when life doesn’t make sense and God’s best seems out of reach.

A few months ago, I shared about the biblical strategy of creating “stones of remembrance.” (Check out this link for more information.) Remembering and rehearsing all of the ways the Lord has lovingly shown his faithfulness in every season, helped us not just say that “the best is yet to come.” The process of remembering and rehearsing helped us truly believe “the best is yet to come.” 

Friend, I am not sure what season you are experiencing right now that is making you question “is the best really yet to come?” for your life. Even though our family feels relieved and excited about these positive next steps for us, we also have an awareness that in this life, nothing can be perfect on this side of Heaven. We have no doubt that more trials will come our way, just like more trials continued to come the Israelites’ way as they took control of the Promised Land. 

However, I want to encourage both of us to remember all of the previous times and methods that the Lord has faithfully provided for us. His provisions might not have been the way we had hoped for or the time frame in which we thought it would be best, but with Jesus, the best really is yet to come. Either in seasons to come here on Earth or in the best season of all when we spend forever with Jesus in Heaven. 

Thank you for journeying along with our family during our wilderness season and for waiting expectantly with us for our promised season to come.