Are You in a Waiting Season?
Three years ago, I received an e-mail from a blog reader whose personal and family life had been plagued by a series of issues and problems. She wrote of the agony and pain that had taken its toll on her family and wondered how she could navigate her escape.
A common thread that ran through her e-mail was the unexpressed question:
Where’s God in my pain?
Are you in a waiting season?
How do you respond to someone like that? How do you encourage someone who’s ‘tired’ of the waiting season? How do you hold the hand of a reader who’s thousands of miles away, look them in the eyes and say the words:
“Everything will be alright.”
Her words, “I’m tired of waiting upon the Lord” almost crushed me. I felt she wanted to hold on but was losing the strength and energy to carry on.
Waiting seasons can be extremely challenging and difficult. Sometimes, you just need closure and a fresh start. Sometimes a ‘simple’ clarity of why things are happening the way they are will suffice. But sometimes, we get neither.
What’s God teaching you?
Having your life on standstill can be a gruelling experience. The waiting season can be tough and cloudy at times. Sometimes you want to scream:
What are you up to, God?
Our waiting season is an opportunity to learn from the journey. It took Israel 40 years to learn one lesson: TRUST.
What is God teaching you in your waiting season? What’s God up to in your life?
While you wait
I can’t make your pains go away. God can. But even if He hasn’t, never give up! Resolve in your mind that your joy will come in the morning. Never give up! The idea that you’ll eventually drown under the weight of troubles is a complete lie of the devil.
While you wait, pray for God’s divine intervention in every situation of your life. While you wait, praise God for His divine answers to your prayers.
Hope is a powerful antidote for hopelessness. I may succeed in inspiring and encouraging you, but the decision to trust, to hope is yours to make… and yours alone. So, what will you do today?
Question: How do you maintain a positive attitude when things get tough?
Image courtesy of Eudald | Flickr
About Joseph Iregbu
From a homeless, near-school-dropout to living a story worth telling. Purpose is my passion. What's your story?
Recently, I listen to a message by Ps W. F. Kumuyi with title, “Set your time.” This message brought up things I thought were unusual in the way most of us think. The summary of his message was: Most of us say we’re waiting for God, while God is actually the one waiting for us (for several reasons). If we set the time by faith, and take positive, progressive steps by faith, God will honour will meet our timing.
Yes, it sounds quite non traditional. But I believe that man of God. I don’t assume I know all the frustrations someone waiting is experiencing; but I think that is something unusual someone tired of waiting can try.
I leave off with a thought: Ps Zac Poonen said something that hurts me so much. He said, “Christians are so used to their prayers not being answered, such that, if someone gives a testimony of an answered prayer, we feel, O, that person was soo lucky.”
Have we got the whole concept of waiting on God wrong?
God is actually teaching me so much right now about Delayed Answers to my prayers in the book “The Fire of Delayed Answers” by Bob Sorge. I’m finding healing and revelation in that book.
I recommend it for anyone who is going through a long waiting period…at least this book is helping me.
I just prayed for you and that lady. May God’s hand guide you both and bring clarity, peace and joy.
Very kind of you to pray. Thank you so much. I will look up the book recommendation.
That’s a hard question because when someone says they think God has given up on them they are really just telling you how they feel and you can’t argue with their feelings. I tell these people that although they may feel God has given up they need to know that he is still there for them. They also need to know that other people are there for them. One important thing they can do to turn their feelings around is to spend time with God’s people and in God’s Word.
I think you’re right Caleb. We often speak “words for the wind” in times of troubles; we don’t mean them but situations get into us so hard sometimes.