What is it the one thing that your heart is longing after, desiring, and wanting, but God has said not yet. God has said wait.
Do you trust God? Do you trust that God is at work?
When all is quiet and when God seems quiet, do you know that God is working? God is doing things for you that you can’t see. God is orchestrating certain events and circumstances in your life that will bring His good purposes about for you.
God has a plan for you, and his plans for you are good. Every season, every hardship you walk through, has a reason in God’s ultimate plan.
So will trust Him?
Will you trust that in your waiting, God is working? While you endure seasons of uncertainty and seasons where God seems silent, God is not abandoning you. He is working so that your life will bring Him glory. He is working so that you can experience His good plans for you in His perfect timing.
Take heart, because God is working, in your waiting.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jeremiah 29:11
(Some reflective thoughts from my life these past few weeks, hoping this encourages you in whatever God has asked you to wait in.)
What in your life have you been asking God to restore?
We all have things we wish we could change. Choices we’ve made, mistakes, missed opportunities. Maybe for some time, your prayer has been like mine. A prayer of asking God to restore something that was lost. A prayer and plea for God to give you a second chance.
This week in my Bible Study we have been reading through some of the minor prophets. A theme has been popping out to me about God through this study. This is the truth that God restores. God is a God who restores. He longs to restore and redeem his people and is always lovingly reaching out to those who are His.
But along with this truth that God restores, comes the realization that God’s way of restoring us may not take place in the way we think or want it to happen.
God’s ways often include pain and hardships. Why is this God’s way? God uses the pain and hurt to bring our hearts closer to Him. Sometimes we need to be awakened to sins in our life and the hard things are a form of fatherly discipline. And sometimes God doesn’t give us an answer for why we must walk through certain things other than the fact that He wants us to grow in trusting Him.
If God is a God who restores, this is a hope we can hold onto. Whatever it is we have lost, we can find comfort in knowing that God knows about it. God knows about your deepest hurts and hardest days. In His perfect way and perfect timing He will restore His children and bring them back to His joy.
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” Psalm 52:12
I have to share a little something with you all about my life recently that God has been showing me. For so long I feel like my prayer has been a plea for God to restore things. I was so stuck on the relationship I lost two years ago. As I continually surrendered it to God, I held onto this idea that God would restore it. But now I can see how my plans were not God’s plans. My mind was set on the things I wanted and I couldn’t see past them. When God began doing something new in my life, suddenly I began to see that God’s plans for restoring were going to look different than I imagined. He brought me into a new relationship and each day of this new season I have been watching God restore joy and love back into my life. As I write this now, I can say with my whole heart, I am so grateful that God’s plans were different.
So now, dear reader, as I end this little post, if your prayer has been for God to restore something in your life, I want to leave you with this truth; when God restores, He will do so in His way and in His time. We must remember that God knows us better than we know ourselves. God truly knows what’s best for us, better then we even know. If God has you in a season of waiting, there is a reason. If God has you in a season of hurting and pain, there is a reason. God is a God who restores. He will restore you and bring you closer to Himself through whatever you are walking through.
But here’s my little tip for you; save yourself some heartache by realizing that God’s plans for restoring probably will not look like your plans. What God plans to do for you will not only be better for you but it will bring also him more glory. God may use pain and hardships to grow you and prepare you before He brings you into a new season. But you can always trust in Him because he is a God who restores.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:19
A new year is here and with it, I am finding myself in a new season. A season that I can’t believe is for me.
I feel like I blinked and 2022 was gone, and now 2023 is here. The last three months of 2022 blur into one beautiful, sweet, and perfect memory in my mind. My life has been a dream these past few months and I’ve been too busy enjoying this new season to sit down and write. But here I am, finally finding the time to write again and this time, I have so much joy and good things to write about!
On October 8th of 2022 God brought a special someone into my life. What felt like a chance meeting at the thrift store (of all places), was the start of God doing a miracle on my heart and the spark of something new. On New Year’s Eve this special someone officially asked me to go into the New Year together and take the step in continuing to deepen our relationship in a Godly way.
As I sit here, thinking about my life, and my year, all I can say is; I’m grateful. Grateful for this new season and this new relationship. Grateful as I realize that I’m at a place in my life I never thought I’d be at. I’m scared that if pinch myself I’ll wake up and find out it’s not real, because, what God has been doing for me, is just that; Too good to be true!
Now, I’m not the one to make new years resolutions. I gave up on them years ago… I can remember a few years where I picked a word for the year, but this year, 2023, I wasn’t planning on doing anything. I guess, God had other plans. Over these last few days, there is a word that God has been putting on my heart. I feel strongly now that I am to make this word my word for 2023.
The word is NEW
My 2022 ended with the start of a new season. The last three months of the year God started something new in my life. It’s been exciting, challenging, amazing, and so good! But change, even good change, can be hard sometimes, and I’ve been learning each day how to go into this new season with a grateful heart.
But as I go into this new year and new season, I don’t want to forget the place I was at not too long ago. I’ve waited so long for God to answer my prayers. I’ve cried many nights because of my hurting heart. My dreams and desires seemed to go unnoticed by God for so long. I found a note in my journal from only two years ago, telling God that I thought He forgot about me. That He somehow forgot to write me the story my heart longed for so much. For most of 2022 I was that girl who was always waiting on God. I felt like God didn’t hear me because he didn’t answer me. I thought I’d be in a season of waiting forever, and it was hard. But here’s what I see now; God had plans for me I couldn’t see yet. If you told me then where I’d be at the end of 2022 I wouldn’t believe you. It blows me away to see how I now stand here, going into a new year, embarking on a new season.
This is why new is my word for this year. 2023 is going to be a year full of lots of new and exciting things and I want to be thankful to God for each of them. I want to learn to cherish this new season and all the things that come with it. And I don’t want to forget where I was, less then a year ago, thinking I’d never be out of a waiting season. God was with me then, and is with me now, in this new year.
Here’s something I’ve been realizing and thanking God for when it comes to waiting. Because of the long waiting and because of all the hurt and pain I had to walk through, this new season is so much sweeter. Not only do I look back and see how close I became to God during the hard days and nights, but I see now how God was working out His plan for me in ways I couldn’t have even imagined. God never forgot about me, instead he was crafting a beautiful story for me to happen in His perfect timing. God wanted me to grow closer to him before this new season. And this new season has made all of the pain, heartache, and waiting worth it!
My waiting friend, maybe you need to hear this reminder. Maybe you are in the midst of waiting and don’t feel God anymore. Maybe you feel like you just can’t go another day without an answer. I want you to know that you’re not alone, I’ve been there, so many times. God is right there with you and has good plans for you. It may seem like He is silent, but God is working, Yes, my friend, In your waiting, He’s working. You can trust Him. In His perfect time and way he’ll bring you into something new.
While I'm Waiting 