How to Trust God in a Season of Waiting
By Rick Warren
“I trust the Lord God to save me, and I will wait for him to answer my prayer.” Micah 7:7 (CEV)
The Bible is clear that you’ll go through different seasons in life. One season that God talks about over and over is the season of waiting.
But you can trust that while you’re waiting, God is working. A season of waiting doesn’t mean that God has stopped working. In fact, he’s taking you through that season because he’s using the time to work in your circumstances for your good.
The truth is, you’re going to spend much of your life waiting. And so, if you don’t figure out how to trust God while you’re waiting, you’ll spend a lot of your life not trusting God.
God is never in a hurry; he’s eternal! And as he’s working, he wants you to learn how to trust in him as you’re waiting.
You might be asking, “When, Lord? When is it going to happen?” And God’s saying something like, “You can trust me with this.”
It’s human nature to say, “Don’t wait! Get things as quickly as you can.” It’s how many cultures are wired. But it goes against God’s blessing in your life—because God’s blessing comes through times of waiting. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “[God] has set the right time for everything” (GNT).
Are you in a time of waiting? Maybe it’s for school to end. Maybe it’s for the “right person” to come into your life. Maybe it’s for a marriage to happen, a baby to come, or a new job opportunity to arrive. And you’re frustrated with how slowly things are happening. We’ve all been there.
There’s a promise in the Bible that not only tells you God is working but also how God is working. You need to claim it while you’re in your time of waiting: “I am the Lord, and when it is time, I will make these things happen quickly” (Isaiah 60:22 NCV).
That’s how God worked when he sent Jesus into this world. The world waited thousands of years for him to come the first time. And then he came at just the right moment.
We’ve been waiting 2,000 years now for Jesus to come again. When will that happen? At just the right time—God’s time. That’s when he’s going to return.
You can apply this same truth to your time of waiting. Remember that a delay is not a denial. When you think God is saying, “No,” he may just be saying, “Not yet. Will you keep trusting me through this?”
Micah 7:7 says, “I trust the Lord God to save me, and I will wait for him to answer my prayer” (CEV).
That is the kind of faith that God blesses.
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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