Season of Waiting With God
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.” (Psalm 62:5 ESV)
Do you guys know this feeling? The situation you’re in is up in the air. We definitely have a preference on which way we want things to go: “Please, God, let me get this promotion.” “Please, Lord, I’ll tithe more if you let me have this raise!” “Oh, Lord, please don’t let this be cancer.”
We’ve all been there, right? And now, we have to wait to find out what God has planned for the situation. It’s a gross feeling, being stuck in the anxiety of not getting what we want. It’s nerve wracking, being scared of the outcome. All we want to do is fast forward through this season of waiting.
But, what if the season of waiting is a pruning season for us?
During my second pregnancy, actually right now as I’m writing this, I am in that season of waiting. A couple of appointments led to some pretty crazy potential outcomes that I never would have anticipated for my baby. I went through so many emotions. Disbelief, anger, fear. I cried, I argued, I pleaded with God. And then two lovely women on the very same night told me the same thing: “Mel, just be still and wait in this moment with God.”
They didn’t say to wait for God. I wasn’t supposed to wait for Him to show me the next step, or reveal the plan; I was supposed to sit down and just wait with Him. What does that look like?
Being Faithful as We Wait With God
I feel like I was in my begging and pleading stage a lot longer than I should have been. I mean, it was like every. single. prayer. was me trying to convince God to do my will in the situation. I remember crying on the way to church, just begging for the outcome that I wanted, and yet another lovely woman in my life spoke something true to me.
She had a diagnosis, and in that moment she told God (and I am paraphrasing because I don’t remember her exact quote) “I just need You to walk through this with me, Lord, no matter what’s to come.” and let me tell you how humbling that was, y’all! It reminded me of that hymn we used to sing a lot. “In the Garden”
The refrain goes like this: And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known.
If you google the definition of tarry in the Bible it says “to linger, to stay longer than expected, to not have an agenda, or to encounter God's presence for an extended period of time.”
THAT my friends, is how we wait with God. We get to experience the joy that comes from spending time with Him. Not just a passing the time kind of time, but a time where we aren’t counting the seconds until the next thing. A time where we have no other intentions except to encounter Him.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10 NIV)
My mom is the queen of calling while she’s driving. She’s only calling because she’s driving and doesn’t want to be alone, and the second she gets home, the conversation is over. It’s not a time to spend together, it’s just a time to pass the time. But, on Wednesday nights after church? We facetime for as long as we’re able. We talk about our week, what’s new, we watch my toddler do crazy things, and we just simply spend time together.
It’s the same relationship, but one is tarrying, and the other is not. Can you spot the differences?
There’s praying to God on the drive to work and cutting ourselves off when we pull into our parking spot. Or reading our Bible, only to rush through the last few verses because “Oh man! Is that the time?”
And there’s shutting out the world so that we can lean wholly on God. Choosing to live faithfully to God no matter how the situation plays out. But, how do we do it?
Take the time to spend with Him. Shut the door, and forget the time. Pray until you literally have no other words to say, and then just sit silently with Him. Play music that reminds you of how you want your relationship with God to be, and just lay there listening to it. Spend the time focusing on God, and who He is, and who we are to Him.
We have one job on this earth, to glorify Him through every moment we have. This is demonstrated in different ways: the great commission, loving others as God loves us, and trusting faithfully in our seasons of waiting.
Trusting Faithfully as We Wait With God
“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:14 NIV)
Another way that we can wait with Him, is choosing His will over anything we desire.
This one is one I know is easier said than done, because I don’t even think I’m fully here. It’s hard not to have our own preferences for outcomes. Even just taking my son to Chuck E. Cheese, I realized how desperately I want him to win things. Like, come on dude! Just get the ball in the goal!
Winning games is so silly, but this is with the important things, too, like medical or financial issues. How do we genuinely put our own will aside so that we can focus on His? DeeDee recommended that I start journaling, and so I got a cute journal and named it “Mel’s Lamentations” and just went to town.
Everytime I felt anxiety about not getting my way, I would lift it straight to God. I would let Him know about my anxiety and desires, and then remind myself and Him that all I want is His will. Just like the lovely lady I mentioned earlier, I would ask Him to just continue walking with me no matter how the situation falls out. And then I would write about it.
When I think of faithfulness, I think of the Hall of Faith mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11.
By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful. (Hebrews 11:11 CSB)
Sarah is so funny to me. God literally told her His plan (that she would have a child) and instead of FREAKING OUT like I would, she laughed. More like scoffed. This is a joke, right? But sure enough, what happened? She believed, lived faithfully, and then received the promise that He offered her and Abraham.
So, this teaches me that we don’t have to be content from the get-go with His plan. We don’t have to be on board like Noah was from the very beginning. Noah was told “hey, this flood that you’ve never experienced or heard of before is going to wreck the world, so build a boat,” and Noah said “Got it.”
How faithful is that! But Sarah didn’t immediately jump and say “Got it.” and she’s still listed right alongside Noah. But, Sarah did get there, and never went back.
So, be faithful. Hear that God has a will for you and it’s better than anything you could ever imagine. And while you think you know what’s best, the best thing you can do in this season of waiting is just wait with Him. Take this time to remember the joy that we are allotted in a way non-believers aren’t, and then use this time to show that joy to them. Be a light, even in what could possibly be a very dark time for you yourself. I pray that you have that opportunity, to realize just how much you need God, and the stillness that we can only have through Him.