Is the Waiting Season Over Yet?

Ah the waiting season…. Our church has recently referenced it as the “wilderness” season or the “sitting by the brook and waiting for it to dry up” season. It could also be known as the “stretching” season or the “testing of your faith” season. Whatever title of season it is in your life, it all feels the same to me. It’s really a term we use to describe when God is working on us and has us in a process of purification and dying to self. Just because it is called a “season” doesn’t mean it will only last 3 months either. It seems that most seasons are more like years of waiting on God to move in a situation. The possibilities are endless on what kind of answers you could be waiting on God for. Maybe you have had some kind of sickness or a physical need for years and you have been waiting on God for total healing and restoration in your body. Or you are waiting on God to give you the green light or to open the right door to shift you into ministry opportunities. Maybe you’re waiting on salvation for your kids or spouse, and you’ve been fervently praying and asking God to intervene in your families lives for years. You could also be waiting for the right job, a vehicle, a house, to be financially stable, a baby, to move or relocate somewhere, the list goes on. Quite possibly everything could seem to be held up in your life and you just don’t understand the reason why.

Why is the waiting season so hard and uncomfortable? Why does God make us wait for things? I don’t think anyone looks forward to this season of life or is excited about it. I’ll be honest with you…I have felt like I have been in a waiting season for years and years and it has been a long process that feels like it will never end some days. For me personally, I am waiting for God to heal my body and to provide a husband so I can start my own family one day. Over the years, the time that I have spent waiting, praying, and crying out to God for these things to happen in my life has become a real source of pain, and it has really tested my heart motives and my trust in God.

What do you do when you’re in a waiting season for an extended amount of time?? I’m not talking about weeks or even months. I am talking about years of waiting. When you are in a season of extended waiting it is easy to compare your situation with others and start the downward spiral of emotions that can put you in a bad place mentally and spiritually. If our minds aren’t renewed to God’s promises over our lives, we will be led by these emotional responses that come from listening to lies of the enemy. These lies tell us to doubt that God loves us or cares for us and our needs; or that you have messed up to bad for God to fix your situation. This is not true at all.

I think as Americans we are so used to getting what we want when we want it that we don’t even understand what it means to wait for something anymore. We have been raised in a culture dedicated to catering to our selfish desires or being our own personal problem solver. God did not create us this way.

Waiting is not a fun experience, and if you are like me, you try to do things to pass the time and make it seem like it is going faster. This is where we can allow things to come in and distract us from what we really should be doing in our waiting season. Instead of seeking God and asking Him why He wants us to wait, we think it is a good idea to reach out to those things we know aren’t good for us. Things like entertainment, bad company, or social media. Basically, doing anything that God did not tell us to do. These acts of disobedience can also prolong our waiting season. If we would obey God the first time and submit to His process we wouldn’t have to wait as long. (Remember the Israelites?) More times than not God has to humble us and redirect us back on His path to get us back on track. Thank God for His grace and mercy.

It’s also a fact that our waiting season can also become our exposing season and if we really take a good look at ourselves in the mirror, we can see what comes out when we are uncomfortably waiting.

Let’s take a moment to evaluate ourselves and mentally check off the emotions we can act out on in our waiting season… Let’s start with frustration or anger. Do we feel angry when God tells us no or not right now? If we let this go unchecked and keep shoving it down instead of dealing with it, it can turn into bitterness and resentment towards God and that doesn’t help you at all. It is basically tying your hands behind your back so to speak. How can you be mad at the ONLY ONE who can do anything about your situation? If we had any sense, we would take a minute to understand that God’s intentions for us way surpass anything we can even dream or hope for! (Ephesians 3:20) We must forgive and let it go, or He won’t forgive us. (Mark 11:25 AMP) What about feeling hopeless or disappointed? For one thing, we shouldn’t feel hopeless because Jesus IS our hope. (Hebrews 6:19-20) As a Christian, we should never feel this way. If we do it is because we have put our hope in that thing, person, or situation more than in Jesus and that is out of God’s ordained order. We should put Jesus first then everything else will follow.

Disappointment on the other hand is an emotion I have struggled with a lot personally. I heard a teaching by Lydia Marrow the other day that just wrecked me. She was talking about the differences between Mary of Bethany and Judas Iscariot in John 12 when Mary washed the feet of Jesus. One thing that struck me to the core was she talked about how Judas was disappointed that Jesus was not meeting his expectations and wanting Him to do things his way instead of Judas following his Master’s ways. Mary on the other hand, poured out her whole life and everything that mattered to her on the feet of Jesus because she saw the value in Him that Judas did not see. In her teaching she said,

“Oftentimes the shackles that hold back our worship have the name “disappointment” written all over them.”

The truth of what she said confronted me. I have been disappointed a lot in my life, and I felt like I was justified in holding on to this feeling and was using it as an excuse to feel sorry for myself and not serving God to the fullest. I was upset that things didn’t happen the way I wanted them to in my timing. This was a reality check for me, and it really puts things into perspective when it comes to our waiting season.

God will allow us to go through these times of waiting as another testing ground to see how we will react to it. If you fell prey to any of those emotions we talked about earlier, now is the time to repent and ask God how we can fix it and get it under the blood of Jesus. He wants our reactions to be pure and for us to look and act like Him. Sometimes waiting isn’t even about us, but it is about His timing. He sees things differently than we do and He doesn’t look at the clock or the years like we do. Maybe God ordained this season of waiting just for you to go through so you can help someone else through it? The final result will bring God more Glory than if He would have given you what you needed the moment you wanted it.

I am still walking through this waiting season, and some days are better than others. I refuse to withhold my praise and worship to God because of the circumstances that I am in. I don’t want to allow my feelings of disappointment or resentment to dictate how good my God is. Even when we don’t understand God’s plans or purpose for the waiting process we can’t go by our feelings or what we think should be happening in our lives right now. We must base everything we see and feel on the promises of God in the Bible and trust Him and His timing. This is easier said than done but if we are constantly correcting the way we think then it will become easier over time.

God’s ways are higher than our ways and He cares for us more than we can even imagine! (Isaiah 55:8, 1 Peter 5:7) I have to remind myself it is well with my soul regardless of how I feel just like the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4:8-37. I am learning to trust Him through the pain of waiting.

So, if you’re like me and you’ve been in your “whatever you want to call it” season, let’s not run back to what is comfortable but embrace it as a time for God to teach us something and to use it for His Glory. Seek the feet of Jesus like Mary and pour out all we can to Him. Let’s give Him our attention and place more value on HIM instead of what we want. Even if He never answers our prayers the way we want Him to here on this earth, He has already given everything to bankrupt heaven for us to be with Him. That, my friend, is more than enough.