But God

Two small words can turn a whole life around. Not because they promise an easy road, but because of who stands behind them. All through Scripture, wherever a situation looks finished — the money gone, the marriage cold, the years wasted — those two words show up and rewrite the ending: But God. If you are standing at the edge of a new year wondering whether anything can really change, this is a word for you.

And if you are new here, or still deciding whether faith is for you, you are welcome exactly as you are. Grace Life Center exists to help people discover their purpose in God, be equipped for it, and be sent out to live it. We don't think you found your way here by accident. So come with your questions and your tiredness and your half-buried dreams — there is room for all of it.

All the Days of My Appointed Time

Job, in the middle of unimaginable loss, asked the question a lot of us are quietly asking. It is not a question of despair but of stubborn hope — the resolve to hold on through the long stretch for the change he was sure would come.

If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

Job 14:14

Consider one man's record. Dropped out of school at seven. Lost his mother at nine. Failed in business at twenty-one. Defeated in a legislative race at twenty-two. Failed in business again at twenty-four. Buried the woman he loved at twenty-six. Had a nervous breakdown at twenty-seven. Lost congressional races at thirty-four and thirty-six. Lost a senate race at forty-five, failed in a bid for the vice-presidency at forty-seven, lost another senate race that same year. Then, at fifty-two, he was elected the sixteenth President of the United States. That man was Abraham Lincoln.

Nearly fifty years of ups and downs and failures. What kept him getting back up? For every Abraham Lincoln, there are thousands who faced the same setbacks and never reached their season of change. What made the difference? Can it be repeated? That is the real question as you stand at the threshold of a new year.

Maybe you have quietly packed away a dream — of being someone, of doing something that mattered, of being useful to God. Maybe you resolved to build a better marriage, and instead it only grew colder. Maybe you poured everything into a job search or a business, and when the year turned it felt like nothing had happened. Maybe you promised to break a habit — anger, bitterness, an addiction, fear — and the resolution didn't survive a day. And a voice inside says: maybe this is just who I am. Maybe I can't change.

But God

Here is what I cannot do: I cannot hand you a guarantee about the year in front of you. But I can point you to something more certain than any calendar.

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Isaiah 40:8

Read that slowly. The grass withers. The flowers fade. But God's word stands. Which means the story of your life will not end until God has had His say — until what He has spoken over you has actually come to pass. No matter what has happened, your story cannot, will not, shall not conclude until God's word for your life has been fulfilled.

That is the conviction that carries a person into a season of change. It is the conviction that let a man like Lincoln keep going through every defeat. And all through history, the people who came into their season despite the odds have been the ones who learned to say those two words over their circumstances: The grass in my life may have withered — but God. The flowers may have faded — but God. My career may have collapsed — but God. My friends may have walked away — but God. People may have schemed against me — but God. His word for my life shall stand forever. God will have the last say.

This is not wishful thinking. It is the pattern of Scripture. When Joseph finally stood before the brothers who had sold him into slavery, he told them, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive" (Genesis 50:20). The same conviction steadied David before a giant, and held Job through his suffering — the Job who said, "I know that my redeemer liveth" (Job 19:25), and whose ending God rewrote: "So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:12). The evil was real. The loss was real. But God had the final word.

If you believe that — that your life will not end until God's word comes to pass — three things follow.

Expect Great Things from God

First, expect great things from God. No matter how many times you have been disappointed, your story will not end until He has brought you into your appointed time.

Think of all the sentences that could be written over a discouraged life: she was sure she'd get the job, but she was disappointed; they searched for years and came close every time, but were disappointed; she went from doctor to doctor, each one offering hope, but again she was disappointed. And then two words break in. But God gave her a job she never applied for. But God gave them what they could never have afforded. But God gave her the healing no one could explain.

The enemy has exactly one strategy to keep you where you have always been: to steal your expectation. To whisper that you shouldn't expect your situation to change, shouldn't expect to be well again, shouldn't expect to love again. So why expect great things anyway? Because of who God is.

• "Is anything too hard for Me?" (Jeremiah 32:27)
• "Nothing is impossible with God." (Luke 1:37)
• "What is impossible with men is possible with God." (Luke 18:27)

Heaven and earth will pass away, but God's word for your life will stand. So lift your eyes and expect Him to move.

Attempt Great Things for God

Second, attempt great things for God. The biggest mistake you can make this year is to let last year — and the year before, and the year before that — decide what you dare to attempt now.

Remember Peter. He had fished all night and caught nothing. His nets tore. He was worn out and ready to quit. But God came to his boat — and told him to launch out into the deep. God still comes to tired people's boats. He may say to you: you may have toiled all night, your nets may have broken, but My word for you must come to pass — so launch out.

You can attempt great things because you are not working with your own resources alone. The size of what we are willing to attempt is always set by the size of the resources behind us — and God has placed His unlimited resources at your disposal. So there is no reason to shrink back from even the impossible-looking thing He asks of you. David said it plainly as he faced Goliath: "Let no one lose heart because of this Philistine; I will go and fight him" (1 Samuel 17:32). Whatever felt too big last year, aim higher this year.

Know His Word, and Hold On

Third, know God's word and hold on to it. It is God's word that stands forever — not what the doctor says, not what the neighbors say, not what the numbers say. So you have to know the promises He has made, speak them, and hold to them until your change comes.

Paul charged Timothy "according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare" (1 Timothy 1:18). You fight your way through with the word God has already spoken. That means knowing two things: the God who speaks — His power and His character — and the specific word He has spoken over your life. The prophet asked, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?" (Isaiah 53:1). It is those who know God's word and refuse to let go who see His hand revealed. Let God be true, though every other voice says otherwise. If God has not said it about me, then no matter what I see or hear or feel, I will hold on to what He has said.

And don't only keep His word in your heart — speak it. Scripture ties believing and speaking together: "I believed, and therefore have I spoken" (Psalm 116:10). It is time to let our words change — to speak not the problems we face but the promises of our season of change. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). Fill your heart with it, and let your mouth agree with it.

Your Season Is on Its Way

Imagine a whole community living like this. People show up expecting God to move, because they don't want to miss the day He visits. Remember Hannah — heartbroken, mocked, and yet she was in the house of God on the very day her answer came. That is the power of expectation: it keeps lifting your face toward the One you are waiting on. Even Lincoln once admitted, "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."

Imagine attempting great things — dreams reopened, marriages worked on again, businesses begun by people who had failed before, a deeper leaning on the Holy Spirit because you finally know you need power beyond your own. Imagine taking God's word seriously enough to meditate on it, as He told Joshua: "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night... for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success" (Joshua 1:8).

So here is the invitation. "Surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off" (Proverbs 23:18). There is a purpose in everything you have walked through, and a future still in front of you. Whatever God has spoken over you has not been cancelled by your worst year. Your life cannot, will not, shall not conclude until His word for you is fulfilled. All the days of your appointed time, keep waiting — and keep believing — till your change comes. It is on its way.