“No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Ps. 84:11, ESV)

In the darkest night, you can be assured of one thing: no matter how long the night seems to last, the break of dawn will come. Each morning, when the sunrise shatters the silence of the bitter darkness, be reminded that in a broken and unpredictable world, God remains unchanging. Though you may look at the horizon in your life and see little evidence of promise, know that you’re not abandoned.

God led the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years, not because He wanted to punish them, but because they were full of pride, unbelief, and disillusionment as a result of their years in slavery.

In their broken state, the freedom they so longed for would have destroyed them. So God, in His infinite wisdom, used that wilderness to shape them into the people He knew they needed to be to possess the promised land.

God cannot, and will not, answer your heart’s cry until you have cultivated a place for it to bear fruit. The Lord, seeing all, will not give you something that will ruin you if endowed prematurely. He doesn’t prolong the answer with the intent to wound you; He simply waits for the perfection of time to give you exactly what you need. Often, it’s the wilderness — the season in between the word of promise and its fulfillment — that shapes you.

Today, know you aren’t forgotten or forsaken; God’s hands hold you with kindness. The dawn of the promise is coming.