By Benescke Janse van Rensburg

Several readers e-mailed the same question over the past few days: “How can I stay positive during the waiting season for a breakthrough in my life? How do I prevent losing faith?” I want to share an analogy with you that I hope will encourage you during your waiting time with the knowledge that God hears every single prayer you pray.

The analogy: Imagine for a moment you have a plastic bottle with dark, black water in your hand. This represents those helpless situations in your life that sometimes threaten to overwhelm us.

Now take the cap off. In the same way, we need to take off the limitations on God and allow Him to surprise you with His ability to turn your situation around.

Now, put the bottle of water without the cap under a tap and open the water so the clean water will enter the bottle with dark black water in it. This is what happens the moment we begin to pray about our challenges. We allow God to “walk” into our dark situations to change them. Initially the water in the bottle may stay dark for a few minutes even though the clear water is running into the bottle. It’s the same in our time of waiting. We pray about the challenges, but if we do not see an immediate change, we doubt that God is hearing our prayers. However, if we let the clean water continue to run into the bottle with dark water, we will experience a moment in which the clean water will push out all the dirty water, leaving us with a bottle filled with fresh water. This is our breakthrough moment. The moment in which God reveals his power to us.

What are your challenges today? A financial crisis, an unbelieving spouse, your desire to have a baby, a job, health, restoration in your marriage, healing of an addiction? Remember, the angels gather all our prayers and take it to God’s throne. God knows what you need. Sometimes we just need to stop fighting in our own strength and trust God to work. In Psalm 46:10 we read: “Be quiet and know that I am God. I will be honored among the nations. I will be honored in the earth.” In Ephesians 3:20 we read: “God is able to do much more than we ask or think through His power working in us.”

During the waiting time, we have an opportunity to get to know God's character in a new way as it is also often the season in which he tests our character. Let us pass the test and keep on praying. That moment in which the water might become perfectly clean in the bottle, is perhaps closer than you think. God bless.

Father God, thank You for being in control of my current situation and my future. Help me not to lose hope as the breakthrough takes a bit longer than I had hoped for. I ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

• Check out a short video clip of the analogy here: www.benescke.co.za or social networking page, FBook, Stories van Hoop.

• For any contributions or questions on the topic, send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..