I have to admit that I am not always the most patient person when it comes to waiting. I’m fine when I can see my destination ahead; but when a certain amount of time goes by without answers or a solution, I can all too easily become impatient and anxious.
How often do you feel as though you are going nowhere? You know all of the thoughts:
“I should be over this by now.”
”I should be experiencing more of a breakthrough by now.”
“Why am I still dealing with this?”
” I never thought I’d have to wait this long.”
“When will this season of my life finally be over?”
“Where is God in the middle of all of this?”
We often have our own timeline of how long something should take. When we focus more on our expectations rather than focusing on Jesus with an expectant heart, we can easily feel defeated, frustrated, hopeless and even angry.
We need to be expectantly waiting to see what God will do next.
If I had surgery tomorrow, one of my first questions to my doctor would be, “How long will it take me to heal?” There’s nothing wrong with asking this, of course, but how often do we solely focus on questions like this?
We ask God, “How long will it take me to heal?” “How much longer will I have to feel this pain?”, and we sit and wait – hoping we don’t have to wait much longer.
What about the places where we just feel stuck? What about the parts of our lives that we have handed over to God and are still waiting for Him to do something? Fear can creep in and whisper to us that nothing is ever going to change.
We can sometimes visibly even see the situation getting worse. All of the evidence around us can tell us it’s too late and useless (or foolish) to keep praying.
Often times our focus needs to shift.
If we have an expectant heart about what God is going to do (knowing He has our best interest at heart), we will spend more time praising Him and thanking Him for who He is and what He is going to do. Our focus needs to be on Jesus.
Whatever we focus on becomes magnified. We want to magnify Jesus in our lives, not our problems or what we are waiting for.
One of my favorite scriptures is Matthew 6:33. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added to you.” I encourage you to praise Jesus and thank Him while you’re waiting. Seek Him and His righteousness while you wait.
Instead of continually wondering why it’s taking so long, even if the outcome may look different than you thought or hoped it would, seek Him while you wait. Become expectant of the plans He has for your future, and put your focus on Him as you wait.
(I am saying this to myself as well!)
You may be going through painful circumstances right now that are beyond your control, and it can be easy to wonder if anything will ever improve. I understand and am there right now with you.
Don’t lose hope! Your life may look very different right now than what you originally thought it would, but you can rest assured that He hasn’t forgotten about you, and His plans for you are good.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
