Waiting on God

How to draw nearer to God when it feels like He’s far away

Waiting on God is probably one of the hardest things you’ll ever find yourself doing. Your waiting season may honestly be one of the toughest seasons you’ll face because it’s during that season that you sometimes feel like the Lord has forgotten you. I know that’s how I’ve felt in my waiting season and I’ve been here for quite some time.

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment that my waiting season began, but if I had to guess the moment mine started, I’d say It was the moment I had to stop working on my business, Handmade Hope. Or maybe, more specifically, it was when God told me to let go of Handmade Hope completely and lay it down at His feet. That was such a hard step for me to take for so many reasons. One I find myself making over and over again.

There is something so special about waiting seasons because it’s during these seasons where we have the opportunity to press into God through a deeper reliance on prayer, scripture and community. All three of these things are integral to a well rounded Christian life, and a healthy relationship with God and when fostered well, can carry you well through your waiting season. We’ll go through each one in detail as follows.

Prayer

Prayer has always been and will always be an important part of the christian walk in general. So it makes sense that it would be just as important in our waiting seasons. When we feel like God is far, we can pray to Him and know that He is not far at all. In fact, he is very near. Prayer is our direct line to God and He listens to every word we speak. He delights in us and He loves to hear from us. Prayer doesn’t have to be a mystery or something difficult. Simply talk to God like you would talk to your closest friend. If you are more of a tangible prayer and would like to have an example of how to pray, there are many examples of prayers in the Bible. The one that comes to mind that you may be familiar with is the Lord’s prayer. This is the prayer that Jesus used to teach the disciples how to pray while he was doing ministry during his time here on earth. The point is, it doesn’t matter how you pray, it just matters that you pray. We are instructed to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), and to devote ourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful (Colossians 4:2) amongst other instructions to pray. So I encourage you, make the time today, right now even, to talk to your Heavenly Father. He’s waiting to hear from you.

Scripture

Just like prayer, scripture is an integral part of our christian walk and it’s an important part of fostering a healthy relationship with God during a waiting season. How can we know God and have a relationship with Him if we don’t know Him? the Bible is the living and breathing Word of God, we get to know who God is through learning about who He is in the Bible. It says in John 1:1 that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We learn who God is through his words.” Scripture is so important and it is a privilege to be able to have and read the word of God. So I encourage you, if you have a Bible, pull it out and read. If you don’t know where to start the gospel of John is always a great starting point. The Psalms are also always really comforting if you’re looking to be uplifted. If you don’t have a physical Bible, you can download the YouVersion Bible app for free and read the Bible for free on there! You can also do hundreds (probably thousands) of bible studies on various topics on there too! (Not sponsored or anything, it’s just a good resource if you’re looking for a good starting point.)

Community

Lastly, let’s talk about community. This is one that can oftentimes be overlooked. And this is a hard one for me to write about because this is an area I feel like I find myself lacking in. We are called to be in community with one another and we see this being modeled out by Jesus himself all throughout scripture. He himself chose to commune with his disciples and he was always communing with anyone and everyone who was willing to listen to what he had to share. We are truly better together and we can lift each other up when the other is struggling. The call to community is why we are called to commune with one another as a church. Churches take this one step further by creating small groups to further foster community building on a small scale. All of that to say, it’s important to commune with one another. If you’re not a part of a church, I encourage you to explore one or two nearby. Or maybe look into some small groups or activities in your area. This is something my therapist and I are going to be working on in the foreseeable future.

Have you found yourself in a waiting season?

Lean into prayer, scripture and community during this time to really foster your relationship with God and know that you’re not trekking it out here alone. You’re in good company, you’ve got a community of christian sisters and brothers who are walking along side you and a God who is forever cheering you on!