Soon: A Word for the Weary (Moments With Grace)

 Years ago, Pastor Grace DeCuir put a single word on a good-sized label and pasted it on the wall of the bedroom where her son slept.

The word was soon.

Early one morning, as she was listening quietly, that word came to her again. In this message from Moments with Grace, she offers it to anyone growing weary in well-doing, anyone ready to give up on what God said.

 Her conviction is that one word is enough. When someone says "good morning," it changes something about your day. A single word can shift your direction, your mindset, the very thoughts in your head. And the thoughts in your head, she argues, are where the real fight takes place.

The Only Private Place Left

 Grace turns to the Apostle Paul's counsel to the church at Philippi: whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, think on these things. Our minds have to be aligned with the mind of Christ, she says, because the battle is in the mind.

 She sharpens the point with an observation about the age of technology: "The only thing that's really private now is the thoughts in your head."

 That, she says, is exactly what the enemy is after. He is always looking for a way to get us to deny our faith, to stop trusting God, or simply to quit quietly.

 "We look like we're functioning," she says. "We've learned how to show up for the camera, for social media, to show up for church. We've learned how to put the face on."

 The answer isn't more polish. We sometimes think we need every i dotted and every t crossed, but the Spirit is looking for true worshippers, those who worship in spirit and in truth. For Grace, that means being honest about who you are and where you are. Honest with God.

Before the Pastor Hit the Pulpit

 Grace is, as she corrects herself mid-sentence, "just young enough" to have grown up in a church where the praying came before the preaching. Before the pastor ever reached the pulpit, people had already prayed for the church and for the pastor. They didn't wait for Sunday. They kept a set time with God, and nobody had to call their name or meet them there. She is glad she got to sit among those praying women and serve.

 Somewhere along the way, she suggests, the culture changed. A generation that wasn't rewarded made sure its own children were: a star for the homework, a reward for taking out the trash. She stops short of calling that wrong. But she worries about what it has taught us to expect from God: "God, I showed up” don't I get a reward?"

 Her corrective comes straight from scripture: seek ye first. Seek God without an agenda. People look on the outside, but God looks at the heart.

"Behold, I Come Quickly"

It is to people who keep seeking, even when they are worn down, that Grace speaks her word.

 She speaks it to the mother who has prayed for her children and now her grandchildren. To the single woman and the single man believing God for a mate. To the one under pressure on the job, the one waiting on a court case, the one waiting on healing. Soon, strength will be renewed. Soon, the chain will be broken. Soon, the pressure will be released.

 "The very thing that you have been praying for," she says, "is about to manifest soon."

 For Grace, the word carries scriptural weight. In Revelation 22:12, Jesus says, "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me." She reads it first as the promise of Christ's return, a reason not to get comfortable, since we are pilgrims passing through with no time to be distracted by "the okie doke." But she also hears God saying something more personal: I'm going to do what I said.

 The reward she describes goes to those who stood. They stood in the storm, under extreme pressure, through the valley of affliction, while others talked about them and plotted against them, and they held their peace. God, she says, is a rewarder of those who diligently and consistently seek him, and he intends to bless them with "uncommon, unusual, and ridiculous favor."

A Lap Around the House

 Grace opened this message with thanks, deliberately, before asking God for a single thing. She thanked him for water and electricity, for a roof and food and shoes, and for the fact that her name was on the wake-up list.

 She closes by asking listeners to bring that same gratitude to a promise they can't see yet. Don't look at the conditions of the world, she says; you serve a supernatural God who is able to bring it to pass.

 "Somebody, you need to almost be taking a lap around your house," she says, "saying thank you, thank you, thank you for soon."

 So don't throw in the towel. Stand on the word, and believe that it will come sooner than you can think or even imagine.