What the Labyrinth Taught Me About God’s Promises

Well friends, I rediscovered these past two weeks that I’m not a super-human who can do all the things with no break.

I have spent 10 of the last 16 days away from home, so I’ve been more scattered than usual.   November 2nd and 3rd I got to be part of an amazing women’s conference in TN through Joyful Christian Ministries and this past weekend I helped lead a retreat through Hope Church in Mystic, CT with 25 other beautiful ladies.

Both were amazing and totally in my element, but I’m ready for a break now.  I know this because yesterday morning a woman asked me how I was doing before my third sip of coffee and I didn’t even register her question until she had fully walked past me.  (#signsofoverwhelmed)

But in the last few months, even through the busy, God has been teaching me about His promises to me.  This year I sensed my theme was to “step into God’s promises.”  So I started doing a study of every time the word “promise” comes up in the Bible.  (Apparently 225 times in the NIV)

As the year progressed, I’ve been praying more intensely over a specific promise I believe God has been putting on my heart through a dream and through His Word to me.  But as I’ve waited, I’ve found that I’m pretty much a promise newbie.  I’m still learning to listen to God, to truly follow His voice.  There are times in this past year I thought I heard God clearly, only for Him to ask me to keep praying instead of giving the outcome I expected.

I keep asking God how to know I’m hearing Him.  But at the same time, I’m learning to pray confidently and boldly before His throne about the dreams I’m confident He has put on my heart.  I’m learning to believe that He is pleased when I come to Him without reservation.

About a month ago I was at reNew Writer’s/Speaker’s Conference where I had the chance to journey through a symbolic labyrinth. God stepped with me along every stone, and whispered a few thoughts in my heart about what it means to follow Him and His promises.  I write them today to remind myself and hopefully to encourage those of you who are still waiting on your own promises from God:

1: We only see the promise in pieces.  But we trust a God who has the whole picture.

In the center of the labyrinth, the giant stone circle represented for me the promise of God that I was walking towards.  Every few steps along the path, I realized that the promise changed shape as my angle shifted.  I believe God reveals bits and pieces of the promise as we go, and we don’t have to be discouraged or give up just because we only have a small piece of the picture now.  We have to trust that God has the full picture- we’re following the Alpha and Omega who already knows the beginning from the end. (Revelation 21:6/ Isaiah 46:10)

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ” Hebrews 10:23

2: God sometimes reveals pieces of His promises to give us courage to pray boldly to Him.

In 1 Chronicles, David tells God that He wants to build a temple for Him to dwell in.  But Nathan the prophet comes to David with a word from God that David is not the one to build the temple- instead, it will be completed by David’s son.  I love David’s response in 1 Chronicles 17:25-26: ” You, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. So your servant has found courage to pray to you. 26 You, Lord, are God! You have promised these good things to your servant.”

I’m learning that God understands our human nature and our tendency to pray small prayers or pray without confidence.  Sometimes I believe He gives us promises or revelations so that we have COURAGE to approach Him in prayer.  That courage gives us faith, and that faith leads us to act.  When God reveals, even if it isn’t the full picture, don’t give up praying.

Hebrews 10:35 “Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

3: Sometimes you feel like you’re walking away from the promise, but God is actually taking you closer.

As I walked through the labyrinth, there was one moment where I was so close to the “promise” (the labyrinth center) that I could almost reach out and touch the stone circle.  But then suddenly, I found my feet walking in the direct opposite direction, apparently away from the promise.  Similarly, as I’ve prayed over my adoption dream, there have been a few moments where the dream seemed so very close I could almost taste it.  There were dates that I thought God was giving me to pray through, and I assumed something amazing and well… “promise-like” was going to happen on those days.  I waited like a kid impatiently shaking Christmas presents under the tree, truly believing that those gifts were mine to open in just a few days.  Then the day would come and go, and I would wonder if the promises simply weren’t real.

But the labyrinth reminded me that even though the journey is infuriating at times, even when it appears that I’m moving away from the promise, God may actually be bringing me still closer.  Psalm 27:14 reminds us that at these time we must “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”  

The story isn’t over.  Keep walking and praying. Sometimes just at the moment we most despair of His answer, the promise is just around the corner.

4: I’m not following the promise- I’m following God.

As I walked on the path I felt God prompting me to look up…and I sensed Him ask the question, “Can you see the promise right now?”

Um…nope.  Negatory, God.  No promise visible here.

Here I believe God was reminding me that His promise was never the end goal- the journey with Him is the most precious reward.  If I’m constantly seeking the promise to the exclusion of Him and His presence, I’m missing the point.  He wants me to learn to follow Him, trust Him, enjoy walking with Him, and begin to expect Him even in the unexpected.  The path belongs to Him, and even if there were no other promise than simply His presence, that would be enough.

We are lead by His Spirit.  “For we live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

5: We are always meant to lay the promise back down at the feet of Jesus.

Once you get to the center of the labyrinth there’s this glorious moment where you literally get to sit inside the promise- stand at the site of the promise- embrace everything that God spoke into being in your life.  Your heart beats a little faster as you approach…and a sense of victory and joy bubbles up as you relish the faithfulness of God’s hand.

But as I turned to leave the center and meander back out of the labyrinth, I sensed God saying that I needed to lay my promise back down and follow Him.  It wasn’t mine to keep, mine to hold forever.  God gave it to me because He loves me and delights to work through me- because He wants to give me confidence to approach Him and trust Him over and over.  But if I’m clutching the promise it becomes an idol- if I lay it down, He is able to use it for His own glory and my absolutely fullest life.

Abraham was willing to lay down the promise of Isaac, Hannah was willing to honor God by giving back Samuel, and Jesus was willing to lay down His very life rather than hold onto what He deserved.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

What are you waiting on God for right now?  Do you believe He has put a promise on your heart that He has yet to fulfill?  Or are you asking Him to show you where you are supposed to step next in your journey of faith?  How do you learn to be content in the presence of Jesus as you walk, and to lay down the promises at His feet once He reveals them?  I hope you’ll share your story here!