However, how often must we wait for the perfect timing for the fulfillment of the desire that had been burning within our soul.
Carly Mott, 19, a second year student at St Cloud State learned this lesson as a 15 year old as she watched members of her youth group based out of Colorado Springs fly to Uganda to assist an Orphanage.
Mott, who had been hospitalized because of illness, was kept home by her parents, due to fear of her becoming sick in a foreign country, watched others live out the desire that had been burning within her heart since she was 12.
Mott had to deal with doubt about her individual walk with God, while mistrust entered her heart towards God.
“I felt like I did something wrong, not being able to go,” Mott said. “I was asking God ‘Why did you put this passion on my heart...and I can’t even go’” “I still have the packet of information from that trip because I really felt I was supposed to go on that trip.”
When the desires of our heart do not come to fruition, we often have an introspective view of the situation, similar to the thoughts that permeated throughout Motts thoughts.
What we as humans often forget, is that a Biblical precedent has been set for us, on numerous occasions God had spoken to a person within the Bible, only for these individuals needing to wait on God for the desires of the heart to be revealed.
“1 Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre,...9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” 10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.[b] 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh!” Genesis 18: 1, 9-15)“ 1 And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. “ Genesis 21:1-2
If we look at verse 14 of chapter 18 and the second verse of 21 we’ll see that there is an appointed time. Could it be that there is also an appointed time for us in the year 2011.
Mott stayed in Colorado Springs for another year before her family relocated to St Cloud, with a move to St Cloud it appeared her chances of going to Uganda were diminishing as the connection Mott had with Uganda had been in Colorado and not Minnesota.
When we moved here (St Cloud) I didn’t know where I would go from there,” Mott said.
“The desire never went away And it never really left,” Mott said. “ I think I just sent it to the back of my mind a little bit. Every year I would write a list of the things I wanted to do before I died. Every year Uganda, it was a strange, to me it was random, because I didn’t understand why Uganda, but it was always Uganda.”
What Mott didn’t know is that what could appear as a normal mundane yearly habit of packing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child with her mom would be what provided the way to Uganda.
In the next article I will show how, even though Mott battled disappointment, she didn’t allow doubt to affect her relationship with God and as she continued to help others the Lord made the desires of her heart a reality.
Continued.. part two.