When we talk about the promises of God, we often think of the positive outcomes we desire. We say, “God never breaks a promise. God always keeps His promises,” but in our minds, we equate this to God always giving us the results we consider positive.

What I’ve learned about God’s promises is that they often turn out differently than we imagine. Let me share three key insights with you: God’s promise will often be different than you pictured, slower than you wanted, and farther than you thought.

Take Abraham, for example. He arrived in the Promised Land, where God spoke to him, saying, “I will bless you, and you will be a blessing. This place will be amazing.” Yet, when Abraham arrived, he lived in tents in that promised land. This shows that you can be in the right place, the place God promised you, but still feel like you’re not truly there. You might be blessed, but also feel stressed. The reality is, you can be blessed and stressed at the same time.

Living in tents is symbolic of the tension between God’s promises and the unknowns in our lives. Claiming joy as a promise from God doesn’t mean we won’t experience sadness or depression. It’s not hypocrisy—it’s humanity. As we journey through life, especially when we have a big calling, the challenges we face may contradict the truths we believe.

Your circumstances may test your faith. For instance, Abraham likely felt like an imposter when he arrived in the Promised Land, since no one there knew about God’s promise. Even though God had promised him the land, he never officially owned it. In fact, it wasn’t until many generations later that the promise God made to Abraham fully materialized.

The key takeaway is to judge your life by your faith, not by your current situation. Sometimes, things turn out differently than you imagined. For example, I once envisioned our church growing to 100,000 members in person, but most of them now join us online. The first time we reached 100,000 people on a Sunday was during COVID, when only five people were physically present in the building.

So, when God promises something, it may look different than you expect. Impact and influence don’t always appear in the form of followers or sponsorships. Often, influence comes from sowing seeds of faith for something that will unfold in the future.

Even in situations like the delay in moving into our Ballantyne building, where we faced a two-year delay due to an environmental issue, God’s plan was unfolding in ways we couldn’t have predicted.

Remember, God’s promises may not look like what you expected, may come slower than you wanted, and may take you farther than you imagined, but they are always worth the wait.