You believe God.
You believe His plans are good.
But the wait feels like its crushing you, grinding you to pulp
Your emotions are all over the place
Some people who are in their waiting seasons aren’t bitter,
Some are just confused.
Not angry. Just tired.
Praying is hard in times like this, but waiting with no end in sight is a whole different kind of hard. Especially when there’s no time frame, no date, no promise of “soon”, just a word from God that He will do what He said He will.
What’s even harder is all the things that happen in between the giving of the promise and the fulfilment of it.
Some have faced death.
Some have faced mockery, loss, silence, and long seasons of uncertainty.
Some weren’t even sure they would make it out of the waiting alive.
The Wait Is Not a Joke
There are those who have received a word about marriage, children, relocation, ministry, a job, a breakthrough. They’ve held on long enough to earn our admiration, but make no mistake: it has been hard.
Hard to hope.
Hard to hold on.
Hard to wake up every day and still choose to believe.
And let’s be honest, some didn’t even “wait strong.”
Some people we admire for their courage actually crawled their way through their wait.
Right up to the moment of fulfilment, all they had left was a grain of mustard seed faith.
Just enough to not give up.
Just enough to whisper, “God, I still want You.”
God Will Never Let You Be Tested Beyond Your Limits
There’s something I believe and I always tell people this when they’re walking through tough seasons: God will never allow you to be tested beyond your capacity. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Even the devil has boundaries. If he didn’t, this world wouldn’t even have people left. God is fully in charge. Believe me.
If you are still not sure? Go and sit with Job 1–3. Study the story of Job, a man whose life was hit from every side but only within the limits God allowed. Even your enemy is on a leash. God sets the boundaries.
David: Anointed, But Not Yet Crowned
David was anointed around age 17. He didn’t become king of Judah until about 30 and he didn’t become king over all Israel until he was about 38. (See 1 Samuel 16:13 and 2 Samuel 5:4–5)
These aren’t just numbers. These are years. One year of waiting is hard enough. Twenty years is certainly not beans.
In that time, David lost his wife to another man.
He was on the run.
He was hunted like an animal.
He fled home, lived among enemies, lost battles, lost people, and came close to death again and again.
Many of David’s psalms were written in that waiting season. When he felt abandoned, overwhelmed or barely had the strength to pray. He wrote many psalms not from a palace, but from caves and dark valleys.
“How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1)
Still he waited.
Joseph: Dreamed at 17, Fulfilled at 39
Joseph had his famous dreams at 17. But those dreams didn’t find fulfilment until he was about 39.
Genesis 41:46 tells us he stood before Pharaoh at 30.
His brothers came to Egypt during the famine; two years into the famine and after seven years of plenty. (Genesis 41:46-47, 45:6).
That’s 22 years.
22 years of rejection, betrayal, slavery, false accusation, imprisonment, and silence.
22 years of feeling like the dreams might never happen.
If anyone had every reason to give up, it was Joseph.
But the wait didn’t waste him, it formed him
Not even prison broke Joseph.
He came out of that season more God-conscious than when he went in.
Elizabeth & Zechariah: Waited Until the World Called Them Barren
Luke 1:7 says they were childless and well advanced in years. People had written them off. The label “barren” had settled in. But God had a time in mind and when that time came, John the Baptist was born, not just as their miracle child, but as the forerunner of the Messiah.
Israel: Thousands of Years of Waiting
And just when we think, “Ah, that’s the longest wait,” Let’s talk about Israel. The promise of the Messiah was first given in Genesis 3:15. But He didn’t come until Matthew 1, thousands of years.
Still, He came. Galatians 4:4 says “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son”
Jesus came right on time.
Not a minute early.
Not a second late.
The Weight of the Wait
Waiting can feel like punishment. Waiting is heavy. Heavier when you don’t know the time frame. Heavier when age seems not to be on your side. Heavier when people ask, “So what’s the update?” and you have nothing to say.
Believe me: God is not stalling. Sometimes, He is preparing, other times He’s protecting you and He has set appointed times for everything.
Habakkuk 2:3 says“For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
That’s your anchor. It shall surely come.
So What Do You Do in the Meantime?
You wait and you wait well. That doesn’t mean you pretend it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t mean you fake strength you don’t have. It means you lean in. You stay prayed up. David worshipped while running. Joseph served faithfully in prison. Elizabeth and Zechariah stayed righteous in obscurity. Your posture in the waiting matters, serve while waiting, get busy with God’s work.
Stay anchored in the Word. So that when the temptation comes to give up or to “help God”, you don’t fall. If we’re being honest, getting ahead of God’s timing will cost you. Abraham and Sarah tried it and Ishmael came before Isaac (Genesis 16). The promise didn’t change, but the journey became harder.
So… Hang in there
Not with gritted teeth and rolled eyes but with hope, even if it’s weak, becasue waiting is not wasted when God is the One we’re waiting on.
While you wait…
You might as well make the most of it.
Wrap yourself in the warm blanket of God’s Word.
Let it cover the cold, quiet moments that come with not knowing.
Hold a cup of tea in one hand and a journal in the other.
Write the dreams again.
Sketch the vision again.
Whisper the promises back to God.
And when the enemy tries to speak fear into your waiting,
War back with the Word of God.
Don’t just wait, wait well.
The moment it all comes together, you’ll realize: He was never late just right on time.
Isaiah 40:31: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
