It’s daybreak. You’re standing on the edge of the sand, looking out into ocean, waiting for the tide to submerge your bare toes, once again. You’re longing for the tide change to sweep over you. You’re watching, anticipating—waiting for the moment, confident that it will come. Because, just like clockwork, it always does. 

Sometimes our lives can feel like this moment. Dawn is coming, and we sense it. We feel the changing of the tides nearing closer- looming. Anticipation builds. We are almost breathless with the expectation of a new day. Dawn.

“For now is the time, my beautiful one.

The season has changed, the bondage of your barren winter has ended, and the season of hiding is over and gone.

The rains have soaked the earth and left it bright with blossoming flowers.

The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived.

 I hear the cooing of the doves in our land, filling the air with songs to awaken you and guide you forth.

Can you not discern this new day of destiny breaking forth around you?”

 Song of Songs 2:11-12 (TPT)

Let me ask you, sis: Can you feel this awakening taking place in your own life? Is God stirring something new in your life? What might He be preparing you for? Is something new on the horizon? Ponder this for a moment and sit in it. 

Dawn signifies hope. When the sun rises, God reveals new mercies. Yet we often feel as if we are left in the dark. The sun isn’t rising on our dark night, and it leaves us depleted and disheartened. Where is God in this- we might ask- He promised me dawn, yet I don’t currently see evidence of this in my own life.

The wait provides an opportunity for hope- a confident and active participation in the promises of God. While we wait, we have the choice to show up and watch. To hope. To look for and lean into His promises.  

This perspective is foreign to many because our society celebrates instant gratification and quick hits of dopamine leading to short term pleasure. Therefore, faithfully showing up at the shoreline day by day to anticipate God’s movement is a little uncommon. But Scripture teaches us actively waiting is a form of obedience.

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my savior; my God will hear me.” — Micah 7:7 (NIV) 

Hope is supplied only by God because He is hope. Let this truth sink in. If we hope in anything aside from God, we hope in vain. However, when we place our hope—confident expectation—in the promises of God, He will show Himself faithful. So, if we lean into anything but Him, we will miss it. We won’t experience hope because there is only one true source of hope, and His name is Jesus. 

“When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” 
— Hebrews 6:13-14 (NIV)

Friend, rest in this truth: God’s promises are trustworthy. What He promises He will fulfill, but we too, must wait faithfully. God’s promises are conditional on our obedience. Even when we doubt and what we are hoping for seems impossible, we can hold fast to the fact that God keeps His promises.

Dawn signifies an awakening, freshness, and rebirth. He promises us a new day, but to receive this promise, He requires us to sacrifice the old and move forward into the new with fresh confidence.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? 

I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” 
— Isaiah 43:19 (NIV) 

God is making a way. But He is asking us to let go of the baggage we’ve been carrying through every season of life. A new year (2024) is upon us. We are about to enter a fresh season. So, let me ask you, dear sister, what have you been clinging to, ever so tightly? Allow God to sweep your past and spring you forward into the new He has in store for you. 

Sister, the tides are changing! Are you going to join me at the shoreline? Let’s rendezvous at dawn as we feast on the promises of God and wait in anticipation of His movement. 

- Kierstin Almstrum, ARISE Director of Online Operations and Project Management