Nolan (my younger son) and I were in car line waiting to pick up his brother from kindergarten, and he asked more than once,
“Mom, why are we stopped? … Is Owen done with school yet? … Can I unbuckle? I’m not having fun in this line.”
At least he’s honest.
And then I thought about the many times I’ve had to wait … and did not do it well. It’s such a big part of life, one would think we’d be better at it as adults since we have so much practice, haha.
We wait in line at the grocery store and drive-throughs and the DMV. We wait at the doctor’s office and on the results of lab work and tests. We wait to hear if we’ve been accepted to different schools or hired for a new job.
We wait and wait and wait for our kids to put on their socks and shoes every morning … or is that just at my house?
We wait to be seated at restaurants and for our meals to be prepared, for important packages to be delivered, for people to return our calls or emails, for paint to dry and water to boil and traffic to start moving again and wounds to heal and the next best thing to come along and college football season to start and Christmas to finally get here and for our prayers to be answered and so on and so on.
What IS it about waiting that is so difficult?
As Nolan so plainly pointed out to me, waiting can be boring. When the instant gratification that our brains and the world convince us we need isn’t being satisfied, we often get bored and restless and anxious and discouraged and frustrated and sometimes even angry.
Or, we begin to doubt God’s timing and plan, and the waiting evolves into a test of our faith.
If you’re like me, when important things take longer than expected, you begin to doubt yourself.
“Did I miss something? What am I doing wrong? Am I too late??”
Waiting may be an inconvenient part of life, but waiting WELL takes practice and intentionality. It’s an active process! I’ve told my boys—in the wise words of the modern sage, Daniel Tiger—”When you wait, you can play, sing or imagine anything.”
That gentle reminder usually works for about 10 mins (they’re still little), and then lots of snacks and hot wheels cars and stickers from the dentist and paper and pens all dug out from the bottom of my purse get involved. Last week, I pulled out a random pair of kid’s socks—no idea if they were clean or not—and made sock puppets with Nolan in the truck.
The sweet ladies running the well-oiled machine that is car line (it’s impressive) probably thought I’d lost a few marbles when I pulled up with a tiny sock on my hand, but you do what you gotta do! All you parents out there know.
How can we respond WELL to a season of waiting for the Lord, though?
Romans 12:12 tells us, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
The Apostle Paul, who suffered much and waited often in his time, encourages us here to be joyful in hope and patient in affliction. Our hope as believers is in the Lord of the universe, who is all-powerful and all-knowing and greater than any of our circumstances.
It’s easy to forget that He is still working in the waiting, even if we can’t see that with our own eyes.
God works while we wait, friends.
Scripture is reassuringly clear on this:
“‘For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the LORD, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’”
Jeremiah 29:11 AMP
“But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:25-28 ESV
He has our good at heart, and we can have joyful hope and confidence in His plan and timing and faithfulness.
God hears us whenever we pray (Micah 7:7, Psalm 139:4), but we need to make sure our hearts are aligned with His, repenting of our sin and poor decisions and self-righteousness if we expect to hear or see His answer. It may not happen right away, but take heart that it will.
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
John 15:7
The key to a fruitful prayer life is abiding in Him, keeping our focus on Him and His Word and His presence in our lives, so that our will becomes aligned with His will.
So, in whom and what are you putting your hope?
A friend to accept and understand you? That next paycheck or bonus? Our government to provide for and protect you? A teacher to give you a good grade? Maybe a doctor or medication to cure you, or an employer to acknowledge and promote you?
Those are all wonderful things worth being in prayer over, but our initial response to hardships and delays can be a litmus test of sorts that reveals where our hope really lies.
For me, it was painful and humbling—but also freeing—to learn and admit that my hope during leaner times hadn’t always been in my Jesus (who sent the friend and teacher and doctor and medicine and employer in my life), but rather that my hope had been in other people and in my own quickly fatiguing strength and in material things.
Few of our earthly hopes and expectations come with any guarantees because this fallen world is fickle and often unfair, BUT …
Our God is constant, just, perfect, loving and faithful!
We can hope confidently in Him and His Word and His plan, whatever that may be, even if it looks different than we thought it would. (Psalm 130, Proverbs 11:28, Proverbs 16:3, 2 Samuel 22:31)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
Proverbs 3:5 ESV
Our limited understanding can easily deceive us. We don’t have the entire picture in view like God does, so that’s where FAITH comes in—faith in who He is, faith in His promises, faith in who He says we are in Him, faith in His perfect will, faith in His plan for each of us.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:1-5 ESV
I LOVE those verses!
Friends, God’s Word is a sure source of encouragement, guidance and truth in the waiting and reminds us that this is an active process, not a time to rest on our laurels. Scripture bolsters our faith when the winds of change and hardship come gusting in, and it rightly crumbles our egos when everything is going well lest we forget Who got us to the mountain top. So, …
Turn to scripture in the waiting.
Actively pursue Jesus in the waiting through prayer and Bible study.
Look for opportunities to serve and help others in the waiting.
Serve with love in both big and small ways! It could be helping a friend move, doing international missions work, offering a listening ear and soft shoulder to a family member, buying a meal for a complete stranger.
Serving others, I’ve found, often prepares our hearts to receive God’s answer to prayer and opens doors not just for the people we serve but also for ourselves and our families.
God wants to use us while we wait!
Be open to opportunities to help people as they cross your path. Be a blessing to them. Extend grace and don’t judge them if they roll up in car line with a weird sock puppet on their hand, haha.
That said, the longer we have to wait, the easier it is for fear and worry and doubt and frustration to creep in.
“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
Psalm 27:14 ESV
Being strong and having courage gets harder and harder if we rely only on ourselves.
Galatians 2:20 reminds us, in all things, “not I, but Christ.”
Not my strength, but His in me.
Not my will, but His.
Not for my glory, but for His.
Not my timing, but His.
Not my plans and purposes, but His.
My life and everything and everyone in it don’t truly belong to me, but to Him, our Creator.
We have to let go of this idea that we can do it all and all on our own.
God created us to need Him and to need community, like the friends and teachers and doctors and employers God has placed in our lives.
Our ultimate hope, then, should not be in them and ourselves; rather, it should be in Him who sent them and gives us everything we need (the right people and right things at the right time) to wait for the Lord WELL and to move forward in obedience when He tells us to.
When we trust and rely on His power to accomplish His will for our lives, it gets done and done right.
What does it look like to wait for and rely on the Lord in our daily lives?
It looks like admitting our need for Him and for His help.
It looks like prayer and communication with our Good Father.
It looks like diving into scripture and putting it into practice.
It looks like servanthood, like doing good by using the gifts and blessings and talents God has given us to serve others and glorify Him.
It looks like NOT doing things our own way out of weariness and frustration.
It looks like expectant, confident hope that He will work everything out according to His will.
It looks like refusing to worry.
It looks like being still before the Lord, laying our burdens at His feet, and letting Him do the fighting for us in situations beyond our control.
It looks like obedience to Him and what He has already purposed for us to do.
It looks like worship and gratitude and praise!
Job said, “The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!” Job knew that he could praise the Lord in ALL circumstances because He is always good and always good to us, His children.
Wait for the Lord WELL and keep trusting, praising, thanking, obeying, and serving Him while you wait.
Scriptures for a
Season of Waiting
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
1 PETER 1:3-9 ESV
“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
ISAIAH 40:28-31 ESV
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
GALATIANS 6:9 NIV
“Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.”
PSALM 37:7-9 NIV
FREEBIE
Psalm 27:14 is such a simple but powerful reminder to wait for the Lord in all circumstances, to listen for His voice and presence above all others.
The printable below is an 8”x10” pdf that I hope you’ll download and print for personal use or gift to a friend. It displays so nicely with these other three printables:
“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
PSALM 27:14 ESV
Feature photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash
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