Oikeo Call #45 — God Is Not Finished Yet

There is something about November that makes us start packing up the year before it is over. The holidays are approaching, businesses are closing out their books, and people are beginning to shift their attention toward January. In industries like entertainment, where work often slows significantly after Thanksgiving, the temptation to ease up is especially strong. We begin reviewing what we accomplished, calculating what did not happen, and quietly moving our remaining hopes and expectations into the next calendar year. Somewhere along the way, we start behaving as though December 31 is God’s deadline, too.

During the 45th Oikeo Prayer Call, Reverend Denise Brown offered a timely reminder: Do not take your foot off the gas. God can still work miracles before January 1.

There is nothing wrong with rest. God Himself established rest as part of the rhythm of creation. But there is a difference between resting because we trust God and withdrawing our expectations because we have decided the season is over. Sometimes we stop believing long before God has finished working. We look at the calendar, consider the circumstances, and conclude that whatever we have been praying for will have to wait until next year.

But God has never needed our calendar to accomplish His purposes.

God’s Timing Is Not Our Timing

One of the most difficult lessons of faith is learning that God’s timing rarely submits to our preferences. We like deadlines because they give us a sense of control. We establish goals for the quarter, the year, and the various seasons of our lives. We pray over those plans and work diligently toward them, but when the results do not arrive according to our schedule, disappointment can begin to masquerade as discernment. We convince ourselves that the opportunity has passed simply because it has not arrived when we expected it.

Isaiah 55:8–9 (NIV) reminds us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. The prophet continues by describing how much higher God’s ways and thoughts are than our own.

Isaiah’s words challenge our assumption that we can accurately measure what God is doing by what we can currently see. Our perspective is limited to the circumstances immediately before us, while God’s purposes extend beyond our understanding. That does not mean every delay conceals a miracle or that every unanswered prayer will eventually receive the answer we want. It means we should be careful about declaring something finished simply because we have reached the end of our own expectations.

God is not obligated to follow our timeline, and His faithfulness is not diminished when He chooses a different one.

The God Who Shows Up at the Eleventh Hour

Consider Mary and Martha. When their brother Lazarus became ill, they sent word to Jesus, trusting that the One who had healed so many others could surely heal someone He loved. But Jesus did not arrive according to their timetable. By the time He reached Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Martha met Him with words that carried both faith and disappointment: If You had been here, my brother would not have died.

John 11:21–22 (NIV) records Martha saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Those two words, even now, deserve our attention.

Martha understood that the situation had moved beyond anything she knew how to fix, yet she still recognized that Jesus possessed authority greater than her circumstances. She could not explain His delay, and she certainly could not imagine everything He was about to do. Nevertheless, she continued to acknowledge who He was.

When Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, He demonstrated that the limits of human expectation do not define the limits of divine power.

We must be careful not to turn this story into a promise that every illness will be reversed or every loss restored in this lifetime. The deeper lesson concerns the authority of Christ and the danger of assuming that our assessment of a situation is the final word. Martha saw a closed tomb. Jesus saw an opportunity to reveal the glory of God.

How many times have we looked at a closed door, an approaching deadline, or a disappointing year and assumed we already knew the ending?

Do Not Confuse a Slower Season With a Finished Season

There is a particular kind of discouragement that comes when we have worked faithfully and still cannot see the fruit of our labor. We have submitted the applications, made the calls, attended the appointments, prayed over our families, and done everything within our power to move forward. As the year draws to a close, we may begin questioning whether any of it mattered.

The Apostle Paul speaks directly to this temptation.

Galatians 6:9 (NIV) says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Paul was encouraging believers to remain faithful in doing good, even when the results were not immediately visible. His instruction was rooted in perseverance, not frantic activity. There is a difference between continuing faithfully and exhausting ourselves trying to force an outcome. God does not ask us to manufacture miracles through relentless effort, but He does call us to remain obedient, hopeful, and available.

For some, that may mean continuing to pursue an opportunity when the industry around them has begun winding down. For others, it may mean maintaining a commitment to prayer, showing up for someone who needs encouragement, or refusing to abandon a responsibility simply because the year has become difficult. And for someone else, faithfulness may require taking the rest God has been urging them to receive while trusting that His work continues even when theirs has paused.

The instruction is not to keep ourselves busy for the sake of being busy. It is to resist the temptation to surrender our faith simply because the calendar suggests we should.

Keep Expecting God to Be God

One of the beautiful things about the Oikeo Prayer Call is its continued emphasis on testimony. Reverend Denise regularly encourages participants to share what God has done because testimony strengthens the faith of people who are still waiting for their own answers. When someone speaks of healing, provision, deliverance, or an unexpected solution, the testimony reminds the community that God’s faithfulness is not confined to biblical history.

Revelation 12:11 (NIV) speaks of believers triumphing “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” In its biblical context, this is a powerful declaration about faithful witness and victory through Christ. It also reminds us why sharing what God has done matters. Testimony directs our attention away from the limitations of our circumstances and back toward the character of the One we serve.

That is especially important near the end of the year, when disappointment can become louder than gratitude. We can become so focused on what has not happened that we overlook what God has already carried us through. Some prayers were answered in ways we did not anticipate. Some doors closed and protected us from circumstances we could not see. Some of us survived situations that once seemed unbearable. Even when the outcome we wanted has not arrived, we can still recognize evidence of God’s presence and provision.

Gratitude for what God has already done gives us a foundation from which to continue trusting Him for what comes next.

The Calendar Is Changing, but God Is Not

The same God who sustained us in January remains faithful in November. His power does not diminish as the year progresses, and His ability to act does not depend upon whether we have enough time left on our personal schedules.

Hebrews 13:8 (NIV) declares, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

That truth should steady us as the year draws to a close. We do not have to manufacture excitement about circumstances that are genuinely difficult, nor do we have to pretend that disappointment does not hurt. Christian faith makes room for honest grief, unanswered questions, and seasons when we cannot see what God is doing. But it also challenges us to remember that our present circumstances are not the full measure of His power.

There may still be work for us to do before this year ends. There may be conversations we need to have, opportunities we need to pursue, prayers we need to continue praying, or people we need to encourage. There may also be answers that will not come until another season. Our responsibility is not to dictate when God must act, but to remain faithful to what He has placed before us.

We can close out a calendar year without closing the door on our expectations of God.

The Charge

As we approach the final weeks of the year, resist the urge to write the conclusion before God has finished the story. Review your goals, acknowledge your disappointments, and celebrate the progress you have made, but do not allow an approaching date to convince you that God’s opportunities have expired.

If there is something God has called you to do, continue doing it. If there is a prayer you have been carrying, continue bringing it before Him. If there is an opportunity worth pursuing, do not dismiss it merely because Thanksgiving is approaching. And if you are tired, receive the rest you need without confusing rest with resignation.

The God we serve has never been limited by the turning of a calendar page. He can open a door in December, provide an answer in the final week of the year, or begin something now that will not fully unfold until much later.

Do not take your foot off the gas simply because you can see the finish line. Your timeline is not God’s timeline, and the year is not over just because you have started planning for the next one.

Call to Action

Before you begin making resolutions for the new year, take time to revisit what you have been praying about in this one. Ask God where He is calling you to persevere, where He is asking you to rest, and where disappointment may have caused you to lower your expectations of Him.

Then spend some time in thanksgiving. Remember the prayers He has already answered, the circumstances He has brought you through, and the ways He has sustained you when you did not know how you would make it. There is still time to pray, to serve, to believe, and to remain open to what God may do.

God is not finished just because the year is almost over.