Okay. I know I’m not the only one who just loves being in a season of waiting. …Can you sense the sarcasm in this statement? Waiting for anything involves patience, and patience is hard. But if there is one thing I am learning in the waiting, it’s that waiting on the Lord is never a waste and it’s never for nothing.

During my quiet time a few days ago, I read Psalm 62. Verse one says, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.”

Waiting can be tough; waiting in silence is a deeper action altogether. You see, I tend to grumble when I have to wait. My flesh screams, “Please don’t make me wait! I don’t understand. Why can’t I have this now? Why can’t now be the right time?”

Waiting silently doesn’t do that. I looked up the word “Wait” from this passage in an Old Testament word study. Here are some of the definitions provided:

• To stop
• To cease—similar to “to perish” (like a death)
• To cut down or to cut off
• To quiet self
• To put to silence
• To stand still

Why is it that a season of waiting can actually be one of the hardest battles? Sometimes the hardest thing to do is…nothing. And according to Psalm 62, waiting is a death. A death of self. A restraining of self. Therefore, it’s a fight. A fight that most assuredly must involve putting on the full armor of God. Without the Lord’s help, and without full dependence on His strength, I would crumble and fail and only be miserable.

But David knew in Psalm 62 that even in a hard season of waiting, God is Hope. He is our fortress. Therefore, we don’t have to be “greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:2). We can choose to cling to the Lord.

Here’s what we can know and trust when the Lord has placed us in a season of waiting:

1. God wants us to run to Him! He delights in helping us. He delights in comforting us. And often, a season of waiting is necessary to deepen our relationship with the Father. During seasons of waiting, the Lord teaches us that He is the All-Sufficient One. You may have desires and dreams; you may be curious as to what the future holds. That’s not wrong. But have you given those desires to Him, fully trusting that He knows the plans He has for you and that those plans are always for your good? Do you trust Him with the pen that writes your story? Our lives are in His hands. So yes, the waiting may be hard, but He has a reason for it, and He wants all of us to run to Him in complete surrender, complete worship, and complete trust.
2. God is working. When Naomi lost her husband and her two sons, she despaired because she thought there was no hope for a future. She thought her daughter-in-law Ruth was foolish for following her back to Bethlehem. Naomi’s season of waiting was full of bitterness and grief. She went back to her homeland thinking that her life and Ruth’s life would be full of nothing. But the Lord was working. The Lord brought them back to Bethlehem at precisely the right time, so that Ruth would be introduced to Boaz, who would become their kinsman redeemer. God was even working on a greater plan unbeknownst to Ruth and Naomi. It was through Ruth’s marriage to Boaz that King David was eventually born. Through that family line, Jesus the Messiah was born. Born where? Right in Bethlehem! In a season of waiting, we can be certain that God is working, even if we can’t see it. Even if it doesn’t feel that way (and it probably won’t feel that way, because feelings are deceiving—Read Jeremiah 17:9).
3. In a season of waiting (and in every season), God is good. In The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, a memoir that details her and her family’s horrific experience as Christians who helped the Jews living in Holland during World War II, she writes of her days in solitary confinement. While in prison, no one is allowed to speak, but on Hitler’s birthday, when the German soldiers are celebrating at a party, the prisoners in solitary confinement are able to speak to one another. They begin shouting at one another, shouting names of family members they haven’t seen, inquiring who is still alive or who has died. Corrie uses the opportunity to shout her sister’s name, Betsie. Another prisoner finally shouts back that Betsie is in cell 312, and Betsie has a message: “God is good.” In a prison, surrounded by darkness and treated like the scum of the earth, Betsie’s faith is strong. She’s able to say with conviction, with certainty, that God is good. All Corrie and Betsie could do inside those prisons was wait. Wait for death. Wait to be released. Wait to be tortured. Wait to be moved to another prison cell. Neither Ten Booms knew what was in store for their future, but they both knew God was good. They both knew God was still and forevermore on His throne. They both continued to worship Him despite the darkness. That’s the kind of faith the Lord wants all of His children to have. And it only comes from lives that are willing to die to self and seek God first above all else.
4. In a season of waiting on an unknown future, we can take solace in the promise and possession of eternal life with the Father. In the course of our earthly lives, we can never be sure of what will or will not happen. Will we get our dream job? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe our dream job will change. Will we marry and have children? Maybe. If that’s what the Lord has in store. Will we get to go on that vacation, or will financial troubles keep us from traveling? Will we drive to work safely, or will we endure a flat tire or a car accident? Here in this world, we don’t know the future until the future becomes the present. BUT… Children of God have a future that is promised to us. It can’t be taken from us. It won’t change. God keeps His promises! His children will get to spend eternity in heaven in His presence, continually worshipping Him, free from sin, free from sorrow, free from pain. That’s a guarantee. Not only that, it should be the one thing His children most look forward to. If it’s not, consider this: Could that be why the Lord has placed you in a season of waiting? So you really will seek Him first above all things?

I Thessalonians 5:24 says, “Faithful is He who calls you, and He will also do it.” Dear friend, if God has called you into a season of waiting, that season is a good place. It is a place of preparation. It is a place of pruning. It is a place of spiritual growth. It is a place of strengthening. It is, I believe, first and foremost, a place of THANKFUL worship. Have faith. Your God won’t ever fail you.

A season of waiting can feel like a season of wilderness—a desert land with little to no water. Yet Psalm 29:8 says, “The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness.” It is often in those desert lands that God speaks the loudest. Remember, no matter how things may feel, God is our Living Water. He is our “river of delight” (Psalm 36:8). Wait on the Lord with thankfulness, with hope, with faith, and with courage. Because when the Lord has you wait…the waiting will always be well worth your time.