Waiting Well While Waiting: 3 Tips To Help You Wait On God
Have you ever had to wait? I’m not talking about waiting in line in a bank to make a transaction or for your Amazon package to arrive? I’m talking about waiting for months or even years on something that you desperately needed or wanted.
You prayed endlessly to God. You’ve lamented, stretched your faith beyond the limits of your imagination, even fasted for what you prayed for all to get rewarded with radio silence from God. If you have, you’re certainly not alone. I can honestly say that it’s one of the most hardest, discouraging, and frustrating things we can endure in our Christian walk.
I’m currently in a season of waiting right now for various things to come forth. For years, I’ve prayed and fasted for these things and it has yet to happen. There are moments where I just want to shout, “You know what, God? I QUIT! I’m tired of the silence and the waiting. It’s been days, months, YEARS and I’ve seen NOTHING. I’M DONE!”
But, I know better. The Holy Spirit won’t let me do that. At least, quit for good anyway.
I feel like waiting on God is a special kind of skill. There are those who are gifted with patience and have the endurance to wait. And of course, there are individuals like me who have to work at much more.
In the midst of waiting, I honestly wrestle with being obedient and still glorifying God especially when my prayers seem to go unanswered or when life takes an unexpected or unwanted turn. It’s one thing to wait. I come to terms that we’re all waiting on something or someone. However, it’s another to WAIT WELL.
You may be reading thinking, “Wait well? I don’t want to have to do any more than I’m already doing because I’m SPENT!” I get it. I’ve been there; more times that you can count. However, I realize that there are some things that we can do to help take the sting out of the disappointment of waiting or dealing with life that didn’t go the way we want. Here are three things that can help us wait well.
Pour Your Heart Out To God
There’s a scripture that I hold close to my heart when it comes to my relationship with God. It has been the cornerstone of my intimacy with God and how I relate to Him. Within the last four years, I’ve leaned on this scripture hard as it transformed my views about God.
“Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”
(Psalm 62:8 NKJV)
Tell God how you feel. Seriously… God can handle it.
If you read the book of Psalms, you’ll discover that it’s more than just mere poetry. These are heartfelt prayers and conversations with God that speak of joys, anger, and lament. David and other psalmists were bold enough to share their deepest thoughts and feelings with God through the good, bad, and ugly. God already knew. However, the Bible shows that there’s something freeing about sharing how we feel with God. He doesn’t shy away, hide, or strike us with indignant lightning bolts because of our honesty.
God cares, knows, and wants us to share how we feel. This helps us process and deal with our frustration, disappointment, anger, and other feelings we have while sharing in God’s perspective about our unanswered prayers, hardships, and struggles.
*Side note: If you haven’t read my previous blog post about getting raw and real in our emotions with God yet, click HERE!
God desires that we seek Him in our waiting and will meet us where we are. I know that it’s difficult to do. Our flesh wants no part of that, especially when hurt. However, we know that we can be comforted with the strength to go on as we wait for our prayers to be answered or our situations to change.
Worship
This one is an important tip but one of the hardest to do. I’m speaking from experience. Worship is one of the last things I feel like doing when I’m going through hardship that’s unexpected, unwanted, or I’m dealing with desperate unanswered prayers. It’s much easier to focus on what’s before me than Who’s above me.
However, worshiping God in the midst of waiting has so many powerful benefits. While it may not change our situation(s) or answer our prayer immediately, it will ult change us. Worship has a way of lifting us above and beyond what we’re facing and gives us the strength to wait well. It’s that extra push for us to keep going.
The only thing is, we just need to get started (which often seems like the hardest part). I can seem a little contrived at first to worship when we’re hurting but overtime, our problems of having to endure to wait will seem so far away in the light of God’s presence.
Worship may not come naturally to you. I get it because it doesn’t to me but I’ve also realized that it’s a powerful weapon. It shows the enemy who’s really the victorious one. It’s a great and effective weapon for spiritual warfare. So, let’s practice worshiping and praising even while we wait.
Wait While We Wait On God
You may be reading this and thinking, “I thought we’re already doing that!”
We are but hear me out.
The word “wait” has various meanings. You have the word “wait” which means to stay in place or in expectation. We also have “wait” which means to serve. Waiting is BOTH active and passive.
As we’re waiting for God to do His part and work in our lives, we can be actively doing ours. This can mean serving Him and doing the work that He’s called us to be faithful in doing. Standing by and stressing over when God should act and when He’s going to will not get us very far. In fact, I find that it personally puts me in more anxiety and stress.
Waiting on God actively will cause us to circle back to communicating with Him through prayer. I find that sometimes the answers that we seek for our prayers or situations that need changing come from us waiting and serving God. The answers may be found hidden in the humble spaces of us serving Him. Actively waiting on God will help us focus on the important tasks at hand rather than what we are searching for. It teaches us to look at what’s around us and how we can be a blessing instead of focusing inward.
Our Bible heroes like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Job, David, Hannah, all were actively waiting on God as they waited for their promise from Him. While we don’t know about the intricacies of how they felt during their waiting, we do know that they were doing something for God. They trusted Him and waited on Him.
I speak to myself as I write this: Let’s wait well as we wait on God!
Waiting on God is never easy. What are some other things you do to obey, trust, and wait on God while dealing with hardships or unanswered prayers? Let chat and comment Below.
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