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Hey y’all! Somehow January is already over and February is here. But I’m excited to kick off this new month with another blog post. I want to get more consistent with blogging this year and hopefully post at least once a month! It always amazes me that when I ask the Lord to teach me, He is faithful to answer, and my prayer is that sharing what the Lord has placed on my heart will encourage at least one person.
I don’t know about you but waiting and patience are two of my least favorite words.
I like to have a plan, to know where I’m going, to keep moving, and accomplish a task. When that method is halted, I feel helpless.
Yet, I think this idea is something many people wrestle through. And it makes sense. Human inclination is to keep moving, striving for the next best thing or season. We’re taught it from a young age: graduate from school, work hard to get a promotion, find a spouse and settle down, have kids, and the list goes on. It’s in advertisements telling us we need the new phone or outfit. We need to overcome that addiction or challenge and the only way that can happen is by doing something about it. We are always expecting the next thing. Seeking something we think is better than our current situation. We rush around trying to accomplish everything to obtain this goal. The last thing we want to hear is the word wait, because it connotes passiveness, and passiveness presents a helpless feeling.
In all reality though, waiting is not stagnate; it’s active.
You don’t sit around while dinner’s in the oven waiting for your friends to arrive. You get the house ready by making it warm and inviting.
You don’t sit and stare out the window waiting for the snowstorm to make its appearance. You prepare for it by getting food and supplies.
You don’t sit and wait in anticipation for the arrival of your baby. You get the nursery ready, buy clothes, and read books on how to care for your child.
In all these scenarios, we actively wait.
So why do we choose not to actively wait in our spiritual life? When the Lord speaks and beckons us to a season of waiting before stepping forward, why are we hesitant to obey?
Maybe, it’s because of the need to feel in control or wanting to escape the unpleasant feeling of not accomplishing a task.
Yet, there can be beauty in a season of waiting. It becomes a place where the Lord prunes us so we are prepared for when he does call us to move forward.
My challenge to you if you’re in a season of waiting is to be active. Meditate on Scripture, remind yourself of God’s truth, let your life be an act of worship. Work well at the job or school you’re currently at. Engage with the people around you. Develop connections and places to serve. And do it all with a joyful heart.
We’re not promised to receive all our dreams if we wait. But if it aligns with God’s heart and will for us, He will provide in His timing. So until that day, the waiting becomes active and we can choose to embrace the season by seeking the Lord and knowing Him better. Because cultivating our relationship with Him strengthens a heart willing and prepared for wherever He calls us to and whenever he calls us to move.
Take a minute to look at David’s story in 1 Samuel, chapters 16 and 17. The years of being a shepherd, tending to his flock, and fighting off predators became a catalyst for when God called him to fight Goliath and later become Israel’s king.
There’s nothing more beautiful than the opportunity to commune with the God of the universe as He faithfully prepares you for the next step. There’s purpose in the waiting. Rest in that truth.
~Laura
“But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
1 Samuel 17: 34 – 37