5 Secrets to Waiting on God's Timing: Even When it's Difficult

Waiting sucks.

However, learning how to wait is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. Most of your life will be spent waiting for what you want. By the end of the post, you should have all of the tools that you need to wait gracefully.

Waiting is also crucial in our relationship with God. His timing is perfect, and the issue is that when we try and go ahead of God’s timing, especially in relationships, we end up messing things up. This blog post will also speak to me because I am still learning how to wait gracefully!

What inspired this blog post

This week, I experienced waiting firsthand, and I almost threw myself off a sharp emotional cliff because I was trying to rush.

What happened?

I have wanted to take a particular action for over three years, and each time I went to do this, I would run into an issue. It was money issues, another time it was transportation, and yet another time it was because I got sick. (Who can relate?). But this time, I had made up my mind that I would take this action. I got so into the details that I started taking giant steps without thinking and without God’s approval. Thankfully, right before I made this poor decision, a wise person came through for me and helped me see clearly.

So, a big question you may have is

WHY DOES GOD MAKE US WAIT?

These are a few main reasons that I have found to be true in my own life.

• He wants to mature you: Sometimes, we do not realize that we are (in a word) undercooked. You might think that you are ready for something when you need a few different things to be straightened out before moving forward. For me, it was relationships. I watched my close friends enter these beautiful relationships throughout high school. I felt lonely and inadequate because many guys would not look at me twice. Mentally and physically, I felt so ready for a relationship. But looking back, I realize I was genuinely immature and would have hurt people if I had jumped into a relationship then. I got into many toxic situations ships because of my impatience. Some of these took me years to heal, and I only wished I had waited for the right person to come along instead of jumping the gun.

• He wants to breed perseverance in you: Romans 5:3-4 talks about how perseverance is created. It says, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces perseverance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”

Without going through trials, there is no way to have perseverance. One of the best things that happened to me was suffering from a health issue for ten years! Through that time, I learned so much about myself and longsuffering. I also now have the joy of knowing that there was a purpose for going through that process. A great way to remember this is the three p’s of waiting: perseverance, purpose, and process.

• God's timing is perfect: I did not hear about the word “Kairos” until I started on my journey to my Future Husband. That journey is long and detailed, so I will be detailing all of the juicy details in my premiere novel "Since When did Single Mean Sad".

Kairos timing is the word for God’s perfect timing, and it occurs when things in the physical line up with things in the spiritual. Kairos timing is something that none of us can understand because only God knows when the timing is right.

• Avoiding pain/protection: Have you ever had a crush on someone, and the situation did not work out for some reason? Then, later on, you find out that the person you had a crush on was a bad person? The situation has happened to me a few times, and every time I thank God for protecting me from that situation. Sometimes, when God says not now, he tries to protect you from further hurting yourself or others.

• Better Quality: When it comes to cooking, the longer I cook something, the better it turns out. There is just something about what happens when I have to roast or cook something for a more extended time that makes it taste 10x better. Sometimes when there is something that we need to do, taking that extra time will result in better quality.

A real-time example of this occurred in my life. Initially, my novel “Since When Did Single Mean Sad” was supposed to premiere on Valentine’s Day in 2022. I figured releasing it on that day would be perfect because the book was about love and what to do when waiting on God. But, I quickly realized that I would have to rush some things to release the book that day, including ordering the correct Amazon Proofs to go with the book and finding the best Keywords. After much prayer, I decided waiting on the novel would be better than rushing it.

Just because we might know why God makes us wait, doesn't mean that waiting is any easier. So, here are 5 tips to be patient in difficult times of waiting.

1. Trust in the Lord: One of the most significant ways to get rid of the pain that may come with waiting is to trust that the Lord has your best interest at heart. One of the ways that I found peace with God while I continue to wait for my future spouse is by trusting in him and letting him renew the strength that I know that I need. The bible promises that your paths will be straight if you trust in the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-6). So, I want you to ask yourself today. Is the reason you have trouble waiting because you don’t trust in the Lord?

2. Focus on other things:It can be easy to get distracted in the waiting and lose your purpose. When you lose your purpose, you can fall into depression and anxiety if you are not careful. Therefore, if you obsess over the fact that you don’t have something, it may be time to find something else to focus on. Some great things you can do include joining a club, becoming a part of an online community (like the VIP email crew), and trying new things. You never know what will bring you joy until you experience enough new experiences/

3. Adopt an attitude of gratefulness: I talked about gratefulness in one of my other blog posts. Gratefulness and depression can’t coexist because they are opposite sides of the coin. When you adopt a grateful attitude, you automatically take your mind off what you do not have and put your mind on what you do have. Gratefulness is one of my favorite ways to be more patient and wait on the Lord.

4. Take tiny steps towards your goals while you wait—one of my favorite things is to break big goals into smaller ones. When I was writing my novel, I was overwhelmed by the enormous tasks. But I found that when I broke the steps down into smaller steps and did a little bit every day, I could see myself accomplishing the goals I set out for myself. Focusing on accomplishing your goals can make waiting a lot better.

5. Change your attitude about waiting: Your attitude is the difference between having a fantastic reality where you are happy, blessed, and moved and an unsatisfied, unfulfilled lifestyle. How do you react when you have to wait for something? Your behavior during these waiting times will change everything. Have you ever had to wait in traffic and decided to use your time by watching a podcast or listening to music instead of getting angry? How exactly did that impact your life? Now, imagine if you took that same energy and applied it to the rest of your life. I bet you would be surprised and happy about how much your life has changed.

Other considerations

Just because you apply these five tips does not mean that waiting will be easy. It is never straightforward to have delayed gratification. The thing is that once you finally receive what you have been waiting on, all of the tears, sadness, and faith will be worth it.

Like this post? check out this One:

How to trust again after you have been hurt

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