The Journey of Waiting…
Waiting isn’t my strong suit…for real for real. And it’s something I am not proud to admit a loud.
Ya’ll, we are talking about a person who will only make store runs early mornings or late nights to avoid standing in lines. We are talking about a person who eats cold pizza and cold chicken to avoid pressing the thirty seconds button on the microwave two to three times to allow their food to warm properly. We are talking about a person who seeks in store pick-up when online shopping so they can drive clear across town to pick up their item the same day. It’s bad. I know. Pray for me (lol).
The bad part about having this personality trait is that life is full of moments, periods, and/or seasons of waiting and waiting is therefore unavoidable. Seasons of waiting can be especially hard for a Christ follower like myself, that is waiting on the Lord to move, heal, provide, deliver (fill in the blank with something only God can do).
Now let’s enter my current season of waiting on the Lord….
Recently, I have been forced to reconcile with my season of waiting on the Lord head on and it hasn’t been easy. Not because I don’t wait well, but because I now realize my season of waiting on the Lord has been ongoing for the last ten years and has recently intensified to an active daily battle.
Up until recently, I didn’t realize my prior season of waiting on the Lord was not only seasoned with faith (because “It is impossible to please God without faith” Hebrews 11:6) and I believe nothing is too hard for God (Jeremiah 32:27 “Is there anything too hard for me?”). But it was also seasoned with moments of doubt, distraction, and self-centeredness that caused me not to fully take God at His word and to kinda use this as a reason to focus on things I wanted to focus on. I didn’t realize this until God graciously chose to reveal something hopeful about a long awaited prayer my husband and I petition God about frequently. Talking about mind blown? The hope we received from that revelation was emotionally reassuring and left us in awe of God’s providence. But it also felt short lived and fleeting because within a few weeks….crickets. No additional information. No follow up message, no P.S., no specific details. Simply back to waiting. For things to “seemingly” fade back to black felt like it restarted my “season of waiting on the Lord” clock all over again and it has been an active battle ever since.
But the good news is, in my spiritual growth journey, I was able to add new spiritual disciplines to my “tool belt” for future application. I’ve learned how to posture myself while waiting. This has been especially helpful when moments of doubt and discouragement attempt to take root because these tactics of torment visit me daily, and I can now see them for what they are.
So what am I doing-now, while I wait?
The bible study “Experiencing God” by Henry, Richard and Mike Blackaby and Claude King highlighted that us Christ followers should continue doing the last thing God told us to do until He tells us to do something different when we are waiting to hear from the Lord. That was mind-blowing to me because I’d often ask other mature Christ followers- “what do I do while I wait?”, then proceed to fill my time and schedule with whatever I desired.
I was also drawn to a blog post about answered prayers that the Holy Spirit used to further connect the dots for me. It reiterated that I should occupy myself with finding the works that God prepares for me each day and be aware enough to use them as opportunities to know Him better. I believe this is the true essence of “delighting yourself in the Lord…”, Psalm 37: 4 “ Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart”.
Although brief, my husband and I’s revelation from the Lord reminded me that prayers don’t expire and the Lord knows where to find us at all times. He will invite us into his sovereign purpose and plan in His perfect timing. Until then, understanding how to “wait well” with the Lord puts us on the path to accessing the desires of our heart.
Today if you’re like me and find yourself engaged in the active battle of waiting to hear from the Lord, here are scriptures the Holy Spirit revealed to me during my daily quiet time to not only keep me encouraged, but to combat the lies of the enemy and remind me of the true nature of my Father. I pray that your season of waiting on the Lord continues to reveal his nature, character, purpose, drawing you so close to Him that you experience the true joy of this Christian walk and the desires of your heart.
Gen 16:13 (story of Hagar): “So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “ You are a God of seeing”, for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me”.
Luke 1:6, 8, 11, 20 (story of Zechariah and Elizabeth): “And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord…..No while he was serving a priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord to burn incense...And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense….And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time”
Isaiah 64:4: “ From of old no one has heard or perceived by ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him”.
XOXO
K.Knight
