My life has been characterized by waiting. And trials. As I have written before, trials within trials seem to be a common theme. I am no stranger to difficult circumstances. And I’m sure you have had similar seasons of hardship. That is just part of the human experience in a fallen world.
So often we wonder why- why does God allow us to walk through difficult seasons, endure personal hardships, and experience physical or emotional pain? A commonly asked question is why God allows bad things to happen to good people. I have written about this before.
But hard seasons usually have an element of waiting. And the waiting can be excruciating, at least in my experience. This is partially because we usually don’t know how long we will be waiting and partially because sometimes we have no idea if God is saying no or not yet. Yet in these seasons we are presented with the opportunity to grow closer to God, to allow ourselves to be used in ways we might not even be aware of and may never know we were being used by God this side of eternity. God sometimes even draws us into the wilderness where we unexpectedly find treasure.
I recently listened to a sermon or podcast episode where Pastor Josh Howerton from Lakepointe Church spoke about the apostle Paul and his time in prison. Paul had been on missionary journeys, which allowed him to travel and personally reach people for Christ and start churches. And then Paul finds himself in prison for an extended period of time, stuck in one place and longing to visit the people of the churches he had planted. Talk about a difficult season of waiting!
How often do we find ourselves in that same position! How often do we feel stuck where we are, wondering what God is doing and thinking of all the ways we could be serving God or doing something besides what we are currently doing?
This may apply to the exhausted stay-at-home mom who is wishing for something besides the seemingly menial homemaking and caretaking tasks. It could be the working mom wishing she could stay home with her kids. It could also be the woman waiting to meet the man she’ll call her husband and the opportunity to start a family, or the missionary finished with training and ready to go but with no assignment yet. Even a missionary on assignment may wish to be home with their extended family.
The familiar can sometimes feel like a wilderness or a desert, can’t it?
I feel like that’s one of the devil’s tactics to immobilize us. He cannot take our salvation, but he can distract us or discourage us, keeping us from doing God’s work. It is so easy to fall into that trap- I myself have.
But Pastor Josh points out that while Paul was stuck in prison, probably feeling like he could do so much more out there traveling and planting churches like he had been doing, he simply started writing letters to the churches he had planted. Those letters became books that we can now read, as many of them make up the New Testament.
Paul was stuck in prison, probably wishing he could minister in person to the people in the churches he had started and maybe even plant new churches. But instead, God was going to use the work he could do while he was in prison. The letters he wrote to minister to the people of the churches he had planted would eventually touch the lives of every single Christian after him. Even today, the words he wrote teach and encourage us and will continue to do so until the Lord returns. God wanted him to reach more people than the people living in his day.
How God used Paul is some seriously powerful and sobering perspective!
In our seasons of waiting, like Paul, we need to be walking with the Lord and doing the things He puts in front of us. I believe that in His sovereignty, He has us in the exact place he wants us, and we need to trust that He will open doors to other things and enable the dreams He has placed in our hearts at the right time.
We can still desire different circumstances and pray. God has placed dreams and tucked desires in our hearts, often in line with His calling on our lives, but our timeline is not usually His timeline. That difference is where we find ourselves in seasons of waiting.
Waiting is an action verb.
Just as Paul wrote letters while he was stuck in prison, we need to do something while we wait. It can mean growing closer to the Lord; it can mean building the foundations or quietly doing the groundwork of a dream he has placed in our hearts. It can also mean a season of rest in preparation for a new season, and we definitely do not want to miss that!
While it can be tempting to fan the flames of bitterness while we compare ourselves to others, the most powerful thing we can do is surrender to His sovereign plan and listen for His still small voice directing us to the tasks He needs us to do. It’s more about the relationship than the task. How God uses that is totally in His capable hands.
Seasons of waiting can be long and painful, making it seem like we are wandering alone through a wilderness or a desert, but in reality God calls us into seasons of waiting with a holy purpose. While we wait, God works in our hearts, producing a priceless gift within us.
A verse that has comforted me through my seasons of waiting is Isaiah 43:18-19:
“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
Despite it all, the Lord has faithfully sustained me through all the difficulties so far. He truly has made a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The scenery didn’t necessarily change, and I still don’t know exactly what he is preparing me for or what He has for me in my future, but I do know I can trust Him. I can continue to care for those He has placed in my life and serve those around me when He gives me opportunity. At the end of the day, walking close to the Lord will help me hear His voice and live a surrendered life.
Hearing that perspective on Paul really encouraged my heart and gave me another example of Christian patience. It also deepened my surrender to the Lord and his sovereign plan. We may never know this side of eternity, as Paul probably did not, the impact our faithfulness and obedience in our walk with the Lord will have. And that’s ok. The important thing is that we surrender to His sovereignty and keep walking with Him.
