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Presented by Lisa Bishop
Before we dive in, I have a question for you. How are you? Really, how are you doing? How is your faith in Jesus these days? There is a lot going on in the world and there may even be a lot happening in your life right now. You might find yourself in a sweet season with the Lord. You may be going through a rough patch in your faith, in one of your darkest seasons, or somewhere in between. I pray you know you are not alone.
I don’t think we talk about our struggles enough. We can maintain a code of silence when life is hard or our faith wavers because we are afraid of what people will say. We wonder, “Will they think I’m not a good enough Christian if I share I am struggling?” “Will I be shunned if I am doubting or weary?” And so, we silently suffer, and our faith can suffer even more. In our silence, we run the risk of reaching a point where we isolate and withdraw from community. No matter where you are and how strong, or weak your faith is, I pray that today encourages you.
In my quiet time I’ve been reading through the book of Psalms. The Psalms are a collection of prayers, songs, and praises to God. They are filled with raw honesty as they catalog the Psalmist’s highs and lows of life, along with laments, longings, unwelcome circumstances, and crying out in long seasons of waiting. Waiting can sometimes lead to feelings of frustration and doubt. When answers don’t come, we might start questioning God’s goodness or presence. The Psalms remind us that God’s silence is not his absence. They are a profound reminder of the faithfulness and character of God. If you have never studied the Psalms, I highly recommend you do. Not just cherry-picking verses but reading the fullness and richness of every Psalm from beginning to end. Let God renew your mind, speak into your life, and reveal his character through the cries of the Psalmist.
Romans 12:2, says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This verse reminds us of the power of God’s Word in creating life-long positive change. We all want change for the better, but it requires action on our part. And that action is disciplining ourselves to dwell on the Word of God. Sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Dwelling in the Word and discipline. We want it to be easy. We want to feel like doing something before we actually do it. But sometimes we need the sheer act of will to do what we know is helpful and good and fruitful for us as followers of Jesus.
And that is spending time with God and his Word.
It’s really important that you and I have a rich and deep understanding of the gospel and a solid theological framework to even begin to make sense of some of the things that happen throughout the course of our lives. But too often we can settle for a Sunday faith and a sip of the gospel rather than an everyday faith that permeates every corner of our life. A faith deeply rooted in the living Word of God and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 1:1-3 says, Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields fruit in its season and does not wither. That is one profound truth of immersing yourself in Scripture; it will keep you from withering.
So what does being in God’s Word have to do with waiting on God? Sometimes waiting on God can cause us to wither. We grow weary in the waiting. You may be hoping for a long-awaited answer to prayer for financial provision, a job promotion, or vindication from a wrong committed against you. Waiting for God to provide a spouse, for your marriage to be restored, or for emotional or physical healing. Waiting is hard. Whether we are waiting on something big that can be life-altering or waiting in line, on hold, or in traffic, none of us likes to wait. We get impatient. We want to burst out in anger, or we internalize the pain of the wait and find ways to cope and numb the discontentment. We don’t like the feeling of being out of control and we can forget that God is in control. We don’t like it when God’s plan and timeline does not measure up with ours.
More often than not, waiting does not bring out the best in us. It can induce impatience, frustration, doubt, and fear. When you find yourself stuck in between what your life is and what you want your life to be, you may ask, “What is the point of waiting?” It’s hard to imagine God will bring any good from it. Waiting tries our patience and shows us what our faith is made of.
How do we act or react when we don’t get what we want and when we want it? Will we still trust God and remain faithful?
Experiencing divine delays can produce something beautiful in us if we let waiting do its work—a deeper dependence on God, greater resilience, and growing contentment as you learn to be grounded in Jesus. Experiencing the fruit of waiting will require you to get honest with him and muster up trust in God.
Psalm 22:1-2 recounts King David’s pain of feeling like God has forgotten him as he cries out,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.
What is something you are waiting for? How are you feeling in the waiting? What are you wishing God would do? What thoughts are you dwelling on and what is your view of God as you wait?
Just take some time to think about the answers and when you have a moment, write them out in your journal. Sometimes it’s good to get our thoughts and feelings out on paper. It’s a way to help us process and can even be a way to get perspective on our circumstances.
In Psalm 13:1-4 King David once again puts pen to paper and processes his complaint to God when he cries out,
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
How long, O Lord? Can you relate? Here, David has enemies who are causing him distress. What we know about David’s story is that he encountered several times when his enemies actually wanted to take his life. Maybe you don’t have enemies like that but perhaps you are facing ridicule or wrong accusations at work, and it feels like someone is trying to sink your reputation. Rather than worrying or retaliating, David shows a better way. Cry out to the Lord and ask him for help in the midst of your hardship. Resist taking matters into your own hands and acting in haste with a harsh word. Trust that the Lord sees, walk in integrity, pray like crazy, and wait. The enemy wants to get you all worked up but remember God is working out all things for your good.
After David groans to God and presents his petition for the Lord’s intervention, he remembers who God is. In the middle of waiting for deliverance, David acknowledges God’s character and declares that he will praise him in the waiting when he says,
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me (Psalm 13:5-6).
David gives us another cue on what to do when we are waiting on God. Remember. When we are stuck in the midst of an unwanted period of waiting, we can tend to forget God’s faithfulness and trust in his steadfast love. We get amnesia and fail to remember the times the Lord has come through in the past.
An example of recalling God’s faithfulness is seen in the book of Joshua. After the people of Israel supernaturally crossed the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land, God commanded Joshua to “Choose twelve men, one from each tribe. Tell them, ‘Take twelve stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan. Carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight’” (Joshua 4:2-3). These stones of remembrance were to serve as a permanent reminder and a memorial to future generations of the miraculous river crossing.
Joshua’s stones of remembrance are just one monument in a series of memorials the Israelites used to commemorate the mighty acts of God on behalf of his people. To everyone else, the stones were just a heap of rubble, but to the people of God, they were a constant reminder that Yahweh was a personal and powerful God, working wonders on behalf of his people.
As you look back on your life, how have you experienced God’s faithfulness? How has God shown up in past circumstances that were difficult? How did you experience God’s provision in periods of waiting? If you are having a hard time with these questions, ask the Holy Spirit to show you. “Holy Spirit, show me the ways you have provided in my difficult season.”
What do you need to remember in your current period of waiting?
What if we, as the Israelites did, set up our own stones of remembrance? What visual cues can you put in place to jog your memory of God’s goodness? Maybe it’s keeping a journal to look back and reflect on all the prayers that were answered and all the ways God showed his steadfast love for you.
We often wait until we get our desired outcome before we praise God. What if we worshiped him and expressed a heart of gratitude in the midst of the waiting? As a follower of Jesus, you are actually called to do just that, to worship God as you wait. And not based on the condition that he will come through the way we want but because God deserves our praise in all circumstances.
Which brings me to another thought. What if that thing you are waiting for never comes to fruition? Let’s be honest, that is a hard pill to swallow. What if a spouse does not come and you remain single? What if you aren’t able to bear your own children? What if the diagnosis doesn’t get better? What if God doesn’t provide the financial breakthrough or the future job you envisioned. What if….
Don’t let the impatience of waiting cause you to wander from God. All too often, I have seen people get fed up with their faith because they are tired of waiting for an answer to a prayer. Or at least the answer they wanted. That’s not faith. That is a relationship based on conditions. God never promised life would go according to your plan, but he does promise that he works all things according to his plan. And his plan is working for your good, even when it doesn’t feel like it.
That is genuine faith—believing God is good when life feels anything but. I know, easier said than done. Genuine faith does not demand that God bends to our desires. Genuine faith bows to the perfect will of God. It is easier to act on feelings, but your feelings, while valid, are not truth. What would it look like for you to align your actions with faith? Meaning, even if you don’t feel like it, even if you are restless, annoyed, or just plain mad at God, how can you act in a way that reflects faith in Jesus? “I feel like taking matters into my own hands but instead I will exert self-control, meditate on God’s goodness, be still, and wait.” Waiting is often uncomfortable but life’s waiting room, with a mind fixed on Jesus, shapes us in powerful ways if we let it. We may not have chosen our circumstances, but we can embrace them with a grateful heart because we know God is at work. When you do you will be changed, and your life, though still difficult at times, will be filled with greater hope, joy, and the power to endure life’s challenges.
We need to know what we believe about God and then act consistently with those beliefs when confronted with the wait. Ultimately, our waiting periods are opportunities to deepen our trust in God’s character. He is faithful, loving, and wise. Lamentations 3:22-23 reassures us, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Remember, God’s faithfulness is unwavering, even as we wait.