Do you struggle with uncertainty? When we don’t know what is going to happen in a situation, it can lead to a host of doubts, worries and fears.
It’s tough to have faith, to put it simply.
But here’s the thing that fear and faith have in common: They both require a belief in something that hasn’t happened yet. Fear imagines the worst, but faith believes God is at work, even when you can’t see it or feel it in the moment.
For the longest time, I didn’t want to admit I had any fears. But they were there. I just didn’t recognize them until the Holy Spirit gave me perspective. And he showed me that I struggled trusting God in certain moments, especially if they involved:
The funny (and not so funny) thing is that when I look back, I can see that God came through in every single uncertain situation in my life. He never failed me. He always had a plan and I was the one who was wavering in my faithfulness, not God.
So, how do you remain faithful in the moments of waiting for your calling? Let’s look at what Scripture shows us about trusting God in the waiting.
Trusting God with the Process
God has a process for every area of our lives. He doesn’t change us or our situations in an instant — and that’s on purpose. Just look at how many people in the Bible had to wait for a season before God revealed what he was doing:
- Abraham and Sarah were promised a son, but waited decades before Isaac was born (Genesis 21:1-7). Even after the waiting, they didn’t see the full scope of God’s promise, but this shows that sometimes, we will need to wait until we get to heaven before answers are revealed.
- Joseph heard God calling him through dreams in his teen years. It wasn’t until after he spent years in slavery and prison before he saw those dreams fulfilled. (Genesis 37-41)
- David was anointed king as a boy, but it was many years — and many battles — before he finally sat on the throne. (2 Samuel 5)
It’s not about patience as much as it is about preparation. God is using your season of waiting to grow your character, strengthen your faith and align your heart with his.
Trusting God with the Timing
When the waiting feels unbearable, many of us are tempted to rush ahead and take shortcuts. To use one of the examples from Scripture we covered above, Abraham and Sarah arranged for Abraham to have a child with Hagar (Genesis 16), but this wasn’t the son God had already chosen to fulfill his promise. In fact, it results in pain and conflict.
Ask yourself: do you want God’s best for your life, to reach your maximum potential in him? Or do you want to settle for less, to be “fine” with your purpose, calling and where you are spiritually? When we wait and trust God with the timing, we eventually are reminded that his ways are so much better than ours.
Trusting God with the Silence
Waiting can feel like silence from God. But just because God is quiet sometimes doesn’t mean he’s absent. Just as seeds grow unseen beneath the soil, God is often working in ways we can’t perceive. Psalm 27:14 reminds us: “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” But this doesn’t mean we should be passive. We should pray, serve, worship, read the Word and continue to walk faithfully in our spiritual disciplines.
Ultimately, hope is created and strengthened in moments of waiting. Romans 8:25 says that “if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Hope and waiting are connected, as difficult as it is to see sometimes. Waiting requires hope — an expectation that God will come through on what he has promised.
Waiting is not punishment; it’s often the environment in which God teaches us the most. When you feel stuck between where you are and where you hope to be, remember that the one you’re waiting on is trustworthy. Trust God, even in the waiting.
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