Have you ever hoped? Have you ever felt a promise from God so strong on your heart that you just can’t shake it? Anticipation builds like a magnet, pulling you closer to that next step in your journey. You feel certain the answer is right around the corner, so you faithfully keep moving…but the corner is nowhere to be found. Instead, you find yourself walking in circles. Tracing your own footprints, circling the same wall, thinking by now you’d be getting somewhere.

I have felt this way. I’ve been circling some of God’s promises for so long that I thought would be answered by now. It can be so disheartening. Then God reminded me of another person who walked in circles for a while. Joshua, around the walls of Jericho.

Joshua was leading the people of Israel into the Promised Land, which included Jericho. As they approached the city, it was “shut up tight as a drum” (Joshua 6:1 MSG). In order to conquer it, God instructed Joshua and the people to march around the city, circling it one time, every day for six days. Then, on the seventh day, God told them to march around the city seven times. During their seventh circle around Jericho, they were told to yell. And when they yelled, they didn’t just make a loud noise—they shouted with all their might! They gave it everything they had, and the wall came tumbling down! So here’s a thought. What are you praying for?

Your answer may not be around the corner, but inside the circle.

Sometimes it takes walking in circles to crumble the walls surrounding a promise. Let’s walk faithfully and give it all we have. Faith is about more than living for what’s just around the corner; sometimes it’s living because you don’t see that promise and God is asking you, in faith, to stay in the moment for just a little bit longer.

Keep circling, keep up the faith, and know that God keeps His promises. In due time, the walls will come tumbling down.