Waiting Grace
The Most Important Thing You Can Do In Your Waiting
Have you been waiting for something for so long, that you’re starting to think it just might not come? Are you doubting your prayers will get answered?
I deeply understand these feelings and have been walking through them myself recently.
It feels like the Lord is withholding, or like I misunderstood His direction for my life from the get-go.
My husband and I made life-altering decisions, moved across oceans, started over in a new city as complete strangers, walking in obedience to the doors God had opened at that time. And since we began this journey, very little has shifted in my path. I have literally spent every day in this new city at home, by myself. Waiting.
My internal productivity scale has reached new levels of low. At times, it has all felt so pointless, and a waste of my abilities and knowledge.
I’ve asked the Lord every day – what am I supposed to be doing? Am I getting it wrong?
One important thing to realize is that these questions come from an honest, God-given desire to work and to do good. We see it in the very first pages of the Bible. In Genesis 1, after God created all living creatures and fruit-bearing trees, He created man to tend to them. Adam’s work was to steward these natural resources well in order to yield food.
We can see that we have always been wired to work and to maintain a certain level of productivity in our daily living. In Genesis 1 it was the garden of Eden. Today, it’s our families, raising children, maintaining our homes, or our careers and ministries.
Where I have struggled is in reconciling the things I know to be true of my life and calling, with the reality of it not taking place.
After many, many months of tear-streaked prayers and journal pages asking God to make a way for me, one day I asked Him – What is your purpose for me?
And He answered in a way I didn’t expect.
In John 6, the disciples find Jesus and ask a very similar question. “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” John 6:28 (ESV). And Jesus responds with our key verse, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” John 6:29; emphasis mine.
You see, the disciples were trying to understand the task, or the means of accomplishing some purpose by performance. But Jesus called attention to their heart.
Jesus’ simple directive speaks to the root of our anxiety when it comes to living a meaningful life; it’s a work of the heart. When we wonder what to do without that ‘green light’, His answer is clear – trust in Him.
My friend, I promise that you are not alone in your waiting and wondering. But as you wrestle in your wait, I pray that you remember this is our purpose for daily life, both in and beyond our waiting.