in the waiting…
For the last 5+ years, Waiting Here for You by Louie Giglio has been a part of my Advent season. The amount of underlines, highlights, and various notes that are scattered throughout those pages span a lengthy season of waiting in my life, and every year, those pages always seemed to say exactly what I needed to hear.
During Advent we focus on the waiting on our Savior and of His coming to Earth, what a gift. But wrapped up in that gift are so many lessons to us about seasons of waiting and anticipation. No matter where you find yourself today, you likely are in some type of season of waiting. We may all be waiting on different things, but the fact of the matter is, we move from one season of waiting to another, awaiting the “next thing” to be a part of our lives.
But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me. Micah 7.7
During this Advent season, the turning of each page of this little book brought with it a completely different tug on my heart. Each night, I was able to walk through these words and thoughts, with the answer to one of my prayers in the waiting. Over the years, I’ve read through Waiting Here for You, and would find myself earnestly crying out to the Lord in my own season of waiting… “Father, where is he?” “Is your plan for me to be single forever?” “What am I doing wrong and why am I seemingly stuck here?” You know, all of those questions that float through our heads when we feel like we can’t see the way out. Or the questions that you know do not match up with the Heart of God and His plans for your lives, but you think them anyway. Yeah, those were the questions that would roll around in my brain.
Why?
I am waiting Lord.
And always. In the sweetest of ways, He would remind me that what I am truly waiting on is HIM. That all of the other things that I am waiting on are great and will enrich my world in incredible ways, but that HE is where my Hope rests, and that I am waiting on Him to provide, it has ZERO to do with me.
Below are just a few of the phrases/excerpts that have stood out to my heart over the years…
While God rarely comes at our appointed time, He always comes at the right time…
God is going to come through, fulfilling His long-appointed plans for you…
Most of us consider waiting to be wasting. But that’s not so with our God…
Wait patiently, knowing that waiting is never wasted when you are waiting on God…
The best things in life take time. And the payoff of doing things God’s way is always better…
If we are truly waiting on God, we won’t miss anything…
Your hope is in the One who fights for you…
But God has not forgotten you or His promise…
While we are waiting on God, we are waiting with God. God is there the whole time…
Who you become while you are waiting is as important as what you are waiting for…
What I am reminded of, over and over again, as I read these pages is that nothing is wasted during our waiting. I will be the first to tell you that I have a hard time grasping that idea most days, I am not a very patient person, and waiting is a tough task for me, not matter what it’s for… if I am not actively moving forward, I often feel like I am standing still and in turn wasting time. But, with our Lord, that is not the case. Each moment, whether moving forward or waiting, is being used to make us into who we are to be. And, that too is important. I know I can easily get caught up in the mindset of anticipating what I am waiting for, and that being the most important part… but in reality, who I am becoming during those moments is just as important.
This year, my waiting looks a little different.
One night as Drew was driving home and I was talking to him to keep him awake, I just blurted out “I’m going to read to you,” and we started walking through Waiting Here for You together. And over the next month or so, the words of those pages being read by Drew to me, or vice versa, hit deep into my heart strings and some nights brought tears to my eyes. What a gift to not only walk through this devotional knowing that so many of those prayers I’d cried out were being answered right in front of me, but to also walk through it together.
Will more seasons of waiting arise, without question. Will I walk perfectly through them, nope. But what I do hope is that when they do arise, that I am reminded of what the Lord can/will do through our waiting, and to rest confidently in Him. His plans, no matter what they are, will be far greater than any plan that I could muster up.
What are you waiting on today? Will you rest in Him knowing that your waiting is not wasted?
Friend, whatever it may be that you are so anxiously awaiting, know that He is preparing you for the best moment. He is fighting on your behalf. He is in your corner, and that He has not forgotten His promises to you. The answers may come in ways that we didn’t expect, and the answers may include more waiting, or they may not be what we had hoped for at all, but we lean in and trust that His plan is good. And that He is good, in and through each of these moments.
This year I find myself overwhelmed at His kindness to me, through answered prayers and the reminders from this Advent season. But trust me, I too, am still learning to lean in alongside you.
Who are you becoming in the waiting?
And most importantly, WHO are you trusting while you wait?