Are you in a season of waiting?
Have you been asking God for things to happen and they just haven't?
Have you just felt stuck where you're at and you really don't know what direction God wants to take you next?
If you said yes to any of these questions, trust me when I tell you that I get it. I've been there...
Quite honestly, I am here right now. I have been in a season of waiting lately. I feel like I've been going in and out of the season of waiting and then feeling like, "Oh, okay, maybe I have a sense of direction" and then something happens again and here I am waiting again. There are a few things that I want to go over today because we have to truly learn to be content in the season of waiting and stop trying to rush the process. We have to focus on what God is calling us to do right now at this moment while we're waiting. We have to just be content in that waiting and do what he wants us to do right now while we're in this time of waiting and not trying to go over here, over there, or do this or do that. We have to just be content right where God has us right now in this waiting season.
First I want to say a quick prayer. LORD, I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. I pray that you wrap your arms around every single one of us. I pray that you give us a heart of contentment, give us peace, and help us to know that the season that we're in right now is very necessary. Even though it may feel very unnecessary, it may feel very uncomfortable, and we may just want to get out of it, Lord, I pray that you just give us peace. You're the one that's in complete control, you know better than we do, you have our best interests at heart, and there is a specific reason why we are in this waiting period right now and I just pray that you touch the hearts of every person reading this and watching this right now. I pray that you guide us, protect us, and help us through every aspect of our lives. I love you with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Let's get into some scripture:
"1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever." -Psalm 23
This psalm just really gives me a lot of hope. It is a Psalm of David. There are just a few things that I want to point out here: "He makes me lie down in green pastures," I feel like sometimes we want to run, we want to walk, we want to go forward, and God's like, "No, lay down, I've got you, stay, be here, be present, hold on a minute, be still." He says "He leads me beside quiet waters," sometimes God just wants us to be still. He wants us to lie down. He wants us to stop trying to just move all the time, stop trying to figure out our next steps, make all these plans for the future, and do all of these things. Maybe we're not ready.
I feel like over the past few years God has prepared me for a lot of things. He has taught me so many things. He has grown me in so many ways. But I've realized that whenever I try to speed up the process of certain things that I want in my life, I realize, "Oh, I wasn't ready for that," and God has to make me lay down in green pastures. Sometimes He has to put me beside quiet waters. Sometimes He has to bring me back down and make me just wait a little longer because I have some character development to do still. I still have some faith that I have to grow. There are still things He's working on in me every day and I hope He has been working in you every day if you've been allowing him to. In the season of us waiting, He just has some things that He needs to do in our lives. He has some things He wants to show us, some truths that he wants to show us. Maybe He's been getting rid of some things in our lives and it's really hard for us to cope and deal with the things that he's been removing, so we need a little bit of time before we can get to the next step or keep going through the path because we're not ready for what is ahead right now.
The next thing in the scripture, "He restores my soul:" Sometimes things happen and there is so much grief, so much pain and you feel broken, and God restores us. He always restores us. It's not instant. Trust me. If you've ever been through heartache, if you've ever been through grief, you know it's not instant at all. It takes a lot of time to restore that, but He restores us. He sure does.
Have you ever felt like you've been through the valley of the shadow of death? Have you just gone through something so terrible that you just don't feel like you are ever going to come back from that? Maybe you're still holding on to some stuff that's happened in your life that felt like the valley of the shadow of death. Did you notice God in those moments or maybe after those moments? I know when you're going through it, whenever you're facing hard times, it's hard to notice Him in those moments. Sometimes it takes a lot of those moments for us to finally have enough and to cry out to God, but He's always right here with us. Just like we see in this psalm he says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." His rod and his staff comfort us. God's always right here with us through those tough times that we face, through our loss, through our grief, through all of it. In every single moment in our lives, God is right here with us. When I think about God being right here with me at all times, it helps me to be content or at least start to learn to be content in this waiting period. I know that I'm not alone. I'm never alone. God is always right here. He has my best interests at heart, He's molding me into the person that I have to become to do all that He's going to call me to do in the future. In this season of waiting, God is molding you. You are not even realizing it, I don't even realize how much He's molding me, but He is molding you. We just have to be content. We just have to be still and listen to what God is telling us to do.
"Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." -Psalm 25:4-5
There are a few things that I've been saying for the past couple of months. I've just been asking God to show me His ways, to teach me his paths, to guide me in his truths, and to teach me. It's some verses from one of the devotions in my journal, Christ Transforms Me that I made. I've been saying that to the Lord for months now and I've just been trying to listen and just really pay attention to what He's showing me, the truths that He's showing me, the paths that He's showing me, the things that He's showing me. Whenever things don't happen the way that I think they're going to happen or as quickly as I think they're going to happen, or if I think things are going to start to progress and they go right back down to zero, right back down to step one, I know that God is just preparing me. I have to just be content in this moment, in this time of waiting, and just keep asking God to show me His ways.
When it is time to move, I'll move. If I move too quickly and it's not time to move, I'm going to get right back into this waiting period. That's why it's so important to ask God to show you His ways, to show you His paths, to teach you, but also listen and wait for the time that He tells you to go and listen to His direction. Not what you want, but listen to what He's telling you and just be content in this waiting right now. Get into some scripture. There are so many amazing things in this Bible, so many teachings of Jesus Christ, so many truths, so many things pointing us to deliverance and our salvation through Jesus Christ. Instead of always trying to figure out what to do next, we have to just be still and be content. We know God has plans for us, He has paths for us, and He has things that He's going to do in our lives that we could never even imagine. We have to just be content in this waiting and not try to outsmart God or try to outrun him. If you try to do things on your own it's just going to prolong the thing that God wants in your life.
"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
-Philippians 4:12-13
So right here, we know the secret of being content through every season in our life, even in this very frustrating season of waiting. If you are anything like me, yes, I know it's so frustrating just trying to wait. Waiting for answers, waiting for the go to do what you want to do, waiting to even know if what you want is what you're supposed to do, or waiting to figure out how your life is going to go. Waiting for any answers in your life is very frustrating, but we can be content knowing that we can do everything through Christ who gives us strength. He gives us everything that we need to grow through every aspect and every season of our lives. Even right now in this time of waiting, He gives us strength and we can be content knowing that He's right here, He's molding us, He's refining us, He's purifying us, He's crushing us, He's pressing us. There are some things that we have to work on ourselves. There are some things that God wants to show us, and we have to just be still, be content, and know that He gives us strength and everything that we need. We have to ask God to show us what He wants us to see right now, to guide us every step of the way, and to know that He has our best interests at heart.
Here are 3 steps to implement when learning to be content in this season of waiting:
1. Pray
This is pretty much the first step for everything because prayer is so very crucial in life. With your relationship with Christ, through every aspect of life, prayer is so important. So whatever you want to say to God, just pray.
2. Be still and listen to what God is telling you
Whatever God wants you to know, be still and listen to that.
3. Know that God is right here with us
Recognize that God is never going to leave and that there is no rush in your life. God's timing is perfect, and if it's not time for you to do what you want to do right now, or it's not time to go the next step that God wants to take you or to go further in your path, then that is all in God's plans. There is no rush in God's plans. There's no rush in what you need to do in your life. When you try to rush through accomplishing certain things or just trying to rush through things that you want to do and it's not what God has planned for you, that's only going to lead to heartache, destruction, and disaster. It's going to lead to a lot of very hard, difficult things that you could have prevented by just knowing God's right here with you, He's in control, He has a plan and a purpose for your life, and it's important to just stay here, be content, and just pray to Him, listen to Him, seek Him and what He wants to do for your life.
So I hope this episode helped you to start to learn to just be content in the season of waiting and know that there is a very specific reason for the season that you're in right now. God will show you everything in His perfect timing.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
p.s. If you'd rather listen to Faith-based, spiritual growth, mindset, and mental health tips, then check out my podcast. There I will share my personal experiences, stories I've never told before, and bring you along with this hot mess life of mine. New episodes every week.
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights
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