Wait.

No one likes that word.

That word requires patience and blind trust that what we want to happen will eventually happen, even when current circumstances prove otherwise.

Your situation gets more and more difficult to handle. You may feel as if God isn’t listening to your prayers. And you’re finding it insanely hard to keep putting trust in Him.

Are you currently in a waiting season? Me, too, my friend. But, just because we’ve been waiting on something for months, years, or even decades, it doesn’t mean that the situation is impossible to overcome. It doesn’t mean God is ignoring you. And it certainly doesn’t mean we can’t trust God.

Keep reading to learn how we can trust God through this season of waiting.

Step 1: Realize that What We Want May Not Be What God Knows We Need

I have no idea if I’ve ever mentioned this (cringey) season of my life here on Authoring Arrowheads before, but from 2013 until early 2016, I was in the “Single Season” after being dumped by my first boyfriend at the age of 19.

I was in my freshman year of college at the time, attending a local community college, which was, of course, full of boys from my local area who went to different high schools as me. Fresh crush material, if you will. So, naturally, at this point in time I immediately developed what I call a “rebound crush” in an attempt to quickly get over my ex. Feel free to roll your eyes, y’all, because I am certainly rolling mine right now. 19-year-old me had a very T-Swift approach to love back then. XD

Well… this “rebound crush” situation went like this: I was shy. Always have been, always will be. Well, I had exactly *one* class with this poor boy the entire time I attended that community college, and before that semester ended, I added him on Facebook, thinking ooooh, this is a brilliant idea. He’ll totally message me on there, and then ask me out. Then we’ll date and fall in love and live happily ever after like a cheesy Hallmark movie.

Pure insanity.

This boy did not do any of that. But, he did accept my friend request. Stupidly, I began to crush harder and harder on him after I found out via Facebook he was a Christian and played guitar. Because, hello, what young Christian girl doesn’t dream of a guy like that? At that point, I was 1,000,000% convinced that he was my dream guy, being I dabbled in writing song lyrics in my teenage years, and thus began my constant stream of “GOD PLEASE LET THIS BOY NOTICE ME” prayers that went on for who knows how long.

After that semester of classes ended, I would anxiously await for my path to cross with this poor dude again. I would desperately pray I would just see him in passing at school, or in the community, like a creepy stalker. XD And then, if I did happen to see him, I would convince myself that was a sign from God that we were meant to be together. All this time, the boy still has no clue who I am or has yet to speak a word to me.

I was quite the “love-struck” lunatic.

Cutting to the chase, I’ll spare you more of the stupidest details of this time period (because trust me, y’all would be highly questioning my sanity if you even knew the depths of this rebound crush) and just tell you the one warning sign I should have noticed during this so-called “waiting season” of waiting on this boy to notice me:

One day, out of total curiosity and desperation, I got in my mind that I would speed things up a bit. So, after literal hours of debating with myself and summoning the courage, I sent him a message on Facebook: “Hey”. Yep, it took literally hours to decide on that one creative word.

…and after all that, he never replied. I was crushed.

Now, why did I just write a novella about that cringey season? Because, my friend, this is a classic case of something many of us do in our Waiting Seasons, the whole “I know what is best for me in this situation and am playing tug-of-war with God, and I will not let go until I get what I want” mindset.

Today, looking back, I’m entirely convinced God allowed me to get my feelings hurt to tell me that, Hey, Crazy. Your little “Dream Boy” ain’t the one I designed for you. I’ve got someone way better for you. One who you won’t have to beg Me to make notice you.

Even though I was crushed after that situation, it still took me a good while to officially get over that crush on “dream boy”. But, literally a few weeks after I officially surrendered the situation to God, God allowed me to meet my husband. I kid you not. And, while Josh isn’t what I described as my “ideal dream boy” back then, he’s everything God knew I needed, and he has never made me feel unnoticed or unloved. Because, friends, he is God’s Choice for me, and God’s choices always work out.

So, if you’re stuck in a Waiting Season right now, ask yourself this question: Do I have a tight grip on my desire and am begging God to fulfill my wish, or am I praying for God’s will to be done?

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

proverbs 3:5-6, KJV

Step 2: Surrender. Pray for God’s Will to be Done, and Not Your Own

This is the thing that has taken me a long time to realize: if we’re saying we trust God, we must be open to His Will being fulfilled in each and every situation we’re praying for, and not our own.

That’s a lot easier to type out on a blog post than actually surrender to, though.

But, let’s look at what the book of Hebrews tells us:

But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

hebrews 11:16, kjv

If we’re saying we trust God, that implies that we have faith in all His plans for us, even if we have to go through seasons of uncomfortable situations, because we know He has the best route for us.

We can say we trust God all we want, but many of us think, myself included many times, that by “trusting God”, we can just keep praying for what we want, “trusting” that He will give us what we want, rather than being a truly faithful servant who surrenders by praying “Thy Will be done”.

If we keep trying to push our own desires on God, we’re not trusting Him, and therefore, we’re not pleasing Him. Why would He answer our prayers when we can’t even show proper faith in Him?

I’m slowly starting to learn that there’s a huge difference between playing a “trust mindset”, demanding God to fulfill our plans and being a truly trusting child of Him and being open to whatever He has in store for us. If we’re the former, we shouldn’t be surprised that we’re still stuck in the Waiting Season. We’re basically just trying to navigate in the wilderness on our own like the Israelites in the days of Moses.

The only way the Waiting Season will ever start turning into our Next Season is if we WHOLEHEARTEDLY TRUST GOD IN THIS SEASON and allow Him to guide us down the best route forward.

I’m no expert on this stuff, and I’m in no way saying the “route forward” will be a quick trip. This is just how God wants us to rely on Him, and if we would all get that into our thick heads, maybe we wouldn’t dislike the Waiting Seasons quite so much.

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

Maybe this little mind-dump of information made sense. This isn’t the original direction I had in mind for this post to go, but hopefully these are the words that God will use to help someone in the Waiting Season.

Are you currently in a Waiting Season? How are you trusting God through it?

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀