Get New Glasses While You Are Waiting!

You can keep trying to buy your own pair of glasses, and many times they may not be the best fit. However, if you visit the eye doctor, you’ll not only receive the correct prescription but also undergo a thorough evaluation. Sometimes it could even be your contact lenses if you have them ( you keep trying, but your eyes keep rejecting them)

In the same way, while you’re waiting for your breakthrough — for your marriage to get better, finances to get better, for healing to take place, or for clarity to come — sometimes what you really need is to change your lenses. See things through a 20/20 Christ vision. Because if all you focus on is the blurriness and itchiness of your eyes or that you can't see clearly, then you will start to get frustrated and even annoyed. The same thing happens in our lives: the more you focus on the situation, the things that aren't changing, frustration is going to come full force, and even anger, and often depression. That's not what God wants for us.

So let me share something I heard. Ok. So, here’s a story from the Bible that really moved me as I was listening to a sermon the other day. It paints a picture of what it looks like to release control and refocus your heart on God.

There was a woman named Leah, whose story is found in the Old Testament (Genesis 29–30). Leah longed for her husband Jacob’s love, but his heart was set on her sister Rachel. Rachel was the love of his life. I can't imagine how she must have felt. Feeling unseen and unloved by the man she loved. So she kept hoping that if she gave Jacob sons, he would finally love her. She decided to take things into her own hands. (auch)

• When she had her first son, named Reuben (The Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” (Genesis 29:32).

• With the second, she named him Simeon ( Heard). She then said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also” (Genesis 29:33). Consequently, because she had been taking things into her own hands, she decided to try to have another child and hope for the best.

• With the third, she named him Levi ( attached; joined). She said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me” (Genesis 29:34).

• Then again, four times she hit, and once again she decided to take control of the situation. She ain't letting go and decided to try to conceive. Surely, she got pregnant AGAIN. But something shifted when she had her fourth son. She said, “This time I will praise the LORD” (Genesis 29:35). She named him Judah, which means PRAISE. Please tell me you got that. SHE CHANGED her FOCUS! SHE decided TO PRAISE. She sealed that boy's life and her life with that name.

That word praise comes from the Hebrew word YADAH, which means to praise, to give thanks, or to confess openly — often with uplifted hands in surrender.

Leah finally stopped striving for love and started praising in the waiting. She didn’t have all the answers. Her circumstances hadn’t changed. But her focus did.

Leah learned to praise before she saw the promise. She learned to YADAH — to lift her hands, release her control, and trust God’s heart even when she couldn’t see His hand.

And that’s what we can do too. Here is the biggest thing that blew my mind away. Leah’s story began in rejection, but it ended in redemption. Each of her sons became the head of a tribe — the nation of Israel — fulfilling God’s covenant promise. And... it was through Judah, the son she named in praise, (the one moment she surrendered and stopped taking things into her own hands). From that BOY, the greatest redemption came. From the tribe of Judah came Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5). THE ONE WHO WE WILL FOREVER PRAISEEEEEEEE!!!!

The woman who was unloved and overlooked became the mother of the Messiah’s lineage. Her praise became part of God’s redemption story — not just for her, but for all of us.

So if you feel unseen or weary in your waiting, remember Leah. God can take what feels ordinary, unwanted, or painful and turn it into eternal purpose.

Not because everything becomes perfect, but because your perspective becomes anchored in truth.

As 2 Corinthians 5:7 reminds us: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”And as Hebrews 12:2 says: “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

So while you’re waiting — get new glasses.

See through the lens of grace. Praise in the middle of the process. YADAH — lift your hands, surrender your heart, and trust that God is working even when you can’t yet see it.

Next week, we’ll dive deeper into this powerful word YADAH — and explore how praise can become your posture in every season of waiting.

With Love,

AMR