A View From a Pew: Don’t Put a Period Where God Has Placed a Comma

A View From A Pew Dontr plaperiod where God has Placed a comma

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Most of us are familiar with the title phrase; Don’t Put a Period Where God has Placed a Comma. We live in a world that loves periods. Endings. Conclusions. Final verdicts. When the doctor delivers a diagnosis, it feels like a period. When the pink slip hits your desk, it looks like a period. When the relationship crumbles, when the storm rages, when the bottom falls out, it feels like the story is over.

But hear me and hear me good—God doesn’t write the way man writes. Where man puts a period, God has a way of sliding in a comma.

A period says, “It’s done.”
A comma says, “Hold on—there’s more to come.”

And if you look back over your life, you’ll see commas everywhere.

That night the doctor shook his head and said the sickness was terminal—that looked like a period. But God said, “No, not today.”
That moment you walked away from a wreck, when folks said, “Nobody survived that”—that was supposed to be a period. But the Lord stepped in and wrote a comma.
Some of us could testify we should’ve been locked up, strung out, written off. That chapter should’ve ended with a period. But grace showed up, mercy stepped in, and God put a comma right there.

Can I tell you what that means? It means your story isn’t finished yet. You may feel broken, but you’re not done. You may feel delayed, but you’re not denied. You may feel weary, but you are not finished.

Because the Author of your life does not stop mid-sentence. The Bible says in Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” That means if God started it, He’s going to finish it. And no period man tries to place can stop the comma God has ordained.

Sometimes we need to sit down and count our commas. Think about it. Every time you should’ve been gone, every time you should’ve been counted out, every time the enemy whispered, “This is it”—God stepped in and said, “No, child, this is not it. This is only a pause. I still have work for you to do.”

So here’s the challenge: Don’t you dare put a period where God has placed a comma. Don’t you close the book when God is still writing the chapter. Don’t you declare the end when heaven has only declared an intermission.

Somebody reading this right now is living in a comma season. You thought it was over. You thought the end had come. But listen to me: if you still have breath in your body, your story is still unfolding. Your dash isn’t over. God is still speaking.

You could be the one lying in the casket, being viewed instead of viewing. You could be the one people are remembering instead of the one doing the remembering. But you’re still here. Still standing. Still breathing. Still testifying. That’s not a period. That’s a comma.

And that comma is proof that God is not through with you yet.

So lift up your head. Dry your tears. Straighten your back. The Author and Finisher of your faith is still holding the pen. And if God is still writing, the best part of your story may not have even been told yet.

Don’t put a period where God has placed a comma.