Day 3: Fill in the Blank Tests

There’s a funny story about some elementary-age children in Sunday school. It’s autumn and the teacher is playing a fill-in-the-blank game with them to see if they know how to finish a sentence. For a particular fill-in-the-blank question, the teacher says, “I am brown or gray, I have a long bushy tail and I love to gather acorns. I am a ________.

The class is silent for a moment until one little boy raises his hand and says, “Well, I know the answer should be Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!”

We are going to have fill-in-the-blank tests in life, and the answers may not be as clear as they were for this elementary school class, but the little guy had some wisdom. In life’s fill-in-the-blank tests, the answer in some way is always Jesus. We just don’t know what that’s going to look like.

Fill-in-the-blank tests are the times when it may seem like God isn’t speaking to you or you don’t know what’s next. It’s often a season of waiting on God. When the waiting gets long, the temptation can be to “make something happen” yourself – to fill in the blank yourself.

A fill-in-the-blank test will work different things in your life, but one thing is always true – it’s an invitation to come sit with Jesus for a while. Fill-in-the-blank tests often come at the beginning of a new season.

Sometimes the assignment in a fill-in-the-blank test is to go back to what you know God has said to you and be faithful in that while you wait. The task is to remember God’s promises and gain strength from them as you wait.

2 Peter 3 reminds us that God is not slow about keeping His promises – even though it can seem that way. Waiting seasons are times when God is often at work helping us to offload things that would get in the way in the next season, or he’s strengthening us in ways we will need it. Waiting on God isn’t dead time. It’s a time of growth.

The enemy works overtime to get you to give up and quit, but he’s powerless to thwart God’s plan for you. Only you have the power to say no to God’s plan, so the enemy works diligently to sow discouragement or lies that tempt you to give up.

Comedian Gracie Allen is credited with saying, “Never put a period where God only put a comma.”

If you are experiencing a fill-in-the-blank test, keep believing and waiting for God to act.

We all like when God acts “suddenly”, but truth be told, most “suddenlies” in life come after a season of waiting.

In the meantime, in your waiting, God is inviting you to sit with Him awhile and KNOW Him. Be still and know that He is God.

The fruit of a fill-in-the-blank test is spiritual endurance, patience, and increased faith and intimacy with God.