When Destiny is Delayed

That’s why that accident couldn’t kill you or the disease missed you. You didn’t finish your degree the first time so that you would have the experience to land the promotion you wanted. You handled it all as best you could. Through breakups and makeups, you were placed on reserve. The incidents of the past were stepping-stones to reach the other side of the shore, where your feet are about to walk.

Ruth’s situation reminds me of another passage that should give us confidence. Theologians believe that Genesis 3:15 is a prophecy of the coming of Christ: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (nkjv).

Here, after all that business with forbidden fruit, God tells Satan that the woman’s offspring, humans, will always war against him. In fact, God promises that Eve’s descendants will wound Satan’s head, while he will only wound their heels. The enemy may have won a temporary battle of temptation, but he would lose the final war.

It seems a bit unfair. A head wound is almost always more dangerous than a wound to the heel. Unless, of course, that heel wound makes you take a few missteps. When our heels have been bruised, we start to walk on land that we shouldn’t. We begin to be poisoned by our own fear, bitterness, anger, and doubt. We cannot let what happened to us then consume us now. We may have a limp, but the enemy will ultimately be crushed as we persevere in the power of the Lord.

Through Christ we are able to recover from the bruises of life that can lead us astray. Certainly Ruth knew all too well about the detours of life. As she waited for new information on where her journey would lead her, she had no idea God had already marked her path.

We often worry ourselves sick about something God has already figured out. When you are walking in obedience, you have to believe God is going to cover you. Whether things go the way you think they should or not, when you’re walking with Him, you can trust that He will transform every trial.

Don’t be tricked into thinking that just because you’re delayed you’re also denied. Stay the course, heal your heel, regain your footing, and prepare to use your destiny to wound the enemy’s head.

 Excerpted from Colliding with Destiny by Sarah Jakes. Copyright © 2014 by Sarah Jakes. Used with permission of Bethany House Publishers.  

Sarah Jakes is the author of Lost and Found and Colliding with Destiny: Finding Hope in the Legacy of Ruth, from which this excerpt is taken. She oversees the women’s ministry at The Potter’s House of Dallas, the church led by her parents, Bishop T.D. Jakes and Mrs. Serita Jakes. She regularly blogs atsarahjakes.com and occasionally serves as a TV host on The Potter’s Touch. Sarah is a mom of two and lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Learn more about her and her ministry at sarahjakes.com.