Waiting is painful. Especially when you are waiting on God. You’ve pleaded and pleaded with God to make this thing come to pass day after day, month after month, until you are worn out from calling for help. Your throat is parched and your eyes fail from looking for God (Psalm 69:3). Has He forgotten you, you wonder. Where is God? Does He even care? Why hasn’t He moved yet?
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You are not alone. All of us, as Christians, have had times of waiting on God. David, in Psalm 77:7-9 writes: “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? His promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Or has He in anger withheld his compassion?”
These are all very fair questions to ask of God. God welcomes your questions as they draw you closer to Him. But what do you do when the waiting is taking longer than you anticipated. How do you react when you are wearing from trying to wait on the Lord? Where do you go, and what do you turn to?
Living in a world that glorifies instant gratification, waiting on God can seem like torture. Here are seven things that you can do while waiting on God to help renew your strength and grow in deeper relationship with Him – all while lessening the pain of waiting.
1. Remember His former faithfulness when you are waiting on God’s timing
Sometimes, when you are stuck in the pains of waiting, you get so caught up in how you are feeling and everything that is going wrong, that you forget what is going right. You forget the goodness of God… At least, I did.
Waiting on God through depression
I remember wanting to take my own life because there was nothing worth living for anymore. God was not near. I could not feel His presence. Yet through it all, I hung onto the promises He had given. That He chose me before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). I remembered His faithfulness. At first, I could only remember small acts of His faithfulness, but the more I reflected and desired to draw near; the more I worked at remembering God’s faithfulness, the more I was able to recall all that He had done in my life. I found that life was not worth giving up on. With God, He who began a good work WAS going to carry it on to completion (Philippians 1:6). I just had to remember His faithfulness while waiting on God to heal my broken soul.
When you are stuck waiting on God to move, remember His deeds. Remember the miracles He has done. Consider all of His works and meditate on His mighty deeds. Remember all of God’s ways are Holy (Psalm 77:11-13). Remind yourself of all the ways you saw God show up for you in the past. Remind yourself of all of the accounts in the Bible where God has proved Himself faithful.
Waiting on God through weeping
Jeremiah, who was known as the weeping prophet because of the difficulties he encountered, writes about the pain and afflictions he saw. But his response to waiting on God to heal the land is one we should all take. He says “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:21-26).
Why is it good to wait on the Lord? Because it strengthens your faith, drawing you closer to God in ways that you would not if you did not endure the waiting.
2. Look forward to God’s promises as you wait on the Lord
Through your waiting and remembering the Lord’s faithfulness, hold on to the promise that the Lord longs to be gracious to you, showing you compassion (Isaiah 30:18).
Waiting can be hard because it feels like God is withholding His promises from you, so chose to focus on the promises he has fulfilled as you look forward to the ones you know he promised He would fulfill.
Abraham reminded himself of God’s promise
Abraham is one man who had to wait on God’s timing. God had promised Abraham that he would have a son, but as months turned to years of waiting, there was no son. However, instead of turning away from God, Abraham was strengthened in his faith, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised (Romans 4:18-25). Do you believe that God has the power to do what he has promised?
Maybe you do, but you aren’t sure what the promises of God are. God has promises for your future, promises for when you are sad, and promises for strengthening your faith in Him. There are so many promises from God in the scriptures to help you when you are waiting on God.
Related post: How to wait on God’s promises when you’re struggling to believe
We may be waiting for God’s promises tomorrow, while remembering His faithfulness yesterday, but what do we do today while we wait?
3. Look to God (and keep doing what He has already called you to do).
When you are waiting, you are anticipating the next step. You are anticipating getting married, welcoming a baby into your home, the start of a new job, the healing of a family member, or being brought out of depression. All of this anticipation can result in analysis paralysis for today.
Waiting on God does not mean passively sitting by, forgetting what He has already entrusted you with, while looking forward to something that may or may not happen.
Waiting requires action
To truly wait on God requires action. Paul reminds us to always give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord, knowing that our service to God is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). There are so many small things that God has called you to everyday (if you aren’t sure what, keep reading to find out!), and being faithful to Him is never in vain.
Ephesians 2:10 states that God prepared good works in advance for us to do. While it would be nice to assume that this work revolves around the thing that we are waiting for, the reality is that we are called to live for today, serving God in each and every moment.
How can you serve God in the waiting? By returning to Him, maintaining love and justice (Hosea 12:6), and keeping your eyes focused on Him. Remember that God is the author and perfector of your faith, and to fix your eyes on Jesus, you need to throw off everything that hinders. Keep your eyes on Jesus so that you do not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:1-3).
4. Read the Word when you are waiting on God
It can be difficult to look to God when you don’t know His character, just like it is difficult to look to God and His will for your life when you don’t know His word. And that is why it is so important to read the word of God, especially when you are waiting on Him.
Your waiting may feel like it is taking forever, but everything is but a breath when compared to God and His word. Remember, “the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
David took delight in God’s word while waiting
David, a man after God’s heart, wrote “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.” (Psalm 130:5). David knew the importance of being in God’s word daily and genuinely took delight in spending time with God. Over and over, David would ask God “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long” (Psalm 25:4-5).
Let us be a people like David, who call out to God in the waiting to show us His heart and His ways.
5. Pray during this season of waiting
As you are reading the Word of God, remembering His faithfulness, and looking forward to His promises, don’t forget to pray. Talk to God. Let Him know how the waiting can be agonizing. Be honest with God of your emotions. But be open to hearing from God and what He has to say to you.
Sometimes we can get so caught up in the waiting that we forget to ask God if what we are waiting for is from Him. We can get so caught up in waiting on the THING God has promised, that we forget to draw near to the ONE who was promised.
When you pray, ask God to help you abide in Him in the waiting. Ask God to give you strength to remain in Him so that you can continue to bear fruit for Him (John 15:4).
Remember the words of Jesus that everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:8). The best way to seek God is by talking to Him.
As you watch in hope for the Lord, waiting for God your Savior, take peace in the fact that He will hear you (Micah 7:7).
6. Worship while you are waiting on God
What is your response to knowing that God hears you and cares for you? The absolute best thing you can do in the waiting is worship.
Enjoy being in the presence of God. Find new ways to sing of the Lord’s great love forever, making His faithfulness known through all generations (Psalm 89:1).
You can worship anywhere
Paul and Silas are great examples of what it means to worship in the waiting. They were out preaching and doing the work of God when they were suddenly thrown in jail. There, they find themselves waiting on God. What is God’s plan in all of this? What is God’s will in all of this? Instead of passively waiting – and, let’s face it, complaining – they WORSHIPED God!
The purpose of our life as Christ followers is to glorify God and make Him known! In the waiting, you can bring glory to God through your worship.
Praise God for all He has done for you. Thank Him for His faithfulness. Lean into Him and seek Him. Sing the psalms back to God!
7. Be silent and let God speak as you wait on Him
Finally, the last thing you can do while waiting on God is to be still. Learn how to listen to God and what He has in store for you. Exodus 14:14 says: The LORD will fight for you, you need only to be still. Here, the Hebrew word for “still” is ḥāraš (חָרַשׁ), which means to hold your peace. Do you have peace in this season of waiting?
It can be so hard to be still before God, experiencing His peace in the midst of waiting. When you find yourself becoming anxious, wondering when God will answer your prayers, remember to stop and consider God’s wonders (Job 37:14). Remembering the greatness of God is a wonderful way to be still before Him, experiencing the peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 1:6).
While you are waiting on the lord, being still before Him, think about how you can prepare yourself for when you get out of this season. Do you need to get out of debt, learn a new skill, pour in more to something God has already called you to, or study God’s word more?
In this season, remember to be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for Him (Psalm 37:7)
Waiting on God is not easy, but it is worth it
Waiting on God is hard. It can be gut-wrenching as you watch, day after day, week after week, and month after month pass you by without the answer to prayer you are looking for. In this season, remember you can choose to experience God more fully instead of mearly enduring the delays in your life. Remember that waiting is meant to be filled with peace as you trust in God and His word. Your strength will be renewed as you draw near to God (Isaiah 40:31).
When you do these seven things while waiting on God, maybe you’ll notice the feeling of waiting leave, and the feeling of contentedness and peace enter and flow through your life.
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