Choices: 4 Tips for How to Walk Through Waiting Seasons Well - Jeanne Takenaka
Contents
Don’t you just love waiting seasons?
If you’ve been here very long, you know how very much I love waiting. Just love it.
Like a toothache.
The thing is, this life is full of waiting. Whether we’re waiting for good news, or we’re waiting with uncertainty of what the future holds.
The wait is where growth begins. When we’re waiting for a health test result, we get to choose how we wait. Will we wait with anxiousness? Or will we wait in trust?
What makes waiting so difficult?
Recently, I walked through a health scare. In the midst of undergoing tests to see what was going on, I found myself trembling at the very thought of the worst-case scenario. I clutched tight my desire to be around to watch my boys grow up, graduate from high school and college, and to meet their one-day wives and someday children.
In my mind I know God’s plans are always perfect, and they’re always the best. But as my thoughts circled around the possible outcomes of the tests, my pulse sped up every time my mind mulled over the unknowns. I wanted things to go my way.
But I had no control.
Over the course of days, God confronted me with uncomfortable questions that came down to, “Jeanne, do you trust Me?”
Umm, no? That may have been my initial answer.
Lessons Learned in Waiting Seasons
God was patient as He helped me align my desires with what I know about His character. The truth is, regardless of how those test results turned out, God was still present, and He would be present with Hubs and the boys, even if the worst-case situation became reality.
As my heart aligned with the truth that God is good—that His plans for me are the best plans even if they are hard—worry lost its grip.
Was I still in waiting mode? Yes.
But I got to choose how I waited. I came to the place where I could wait with trust. Because I know God’s character, I didn’t have to allow fear to rule my thoughts.
Truths About When We Have to Wait
Waiting seasons are in-your-face reminders that we have no control in the situation. One thing God’s taught me over the past few years is my desire to control springs from both the fear of the unknown and a lack of trust in my Father’s plan.
Choices: 4 Tips for How to Walk Through Waiting Seasons Well—Waiting seasons are in-your-face reminders that we have no control in the situation. #tellhisstory #waitingseasons Click To Tweet
Waiting seasons are an invitation to trust God with the future. Even when the future may hold painful possibilities, our Father is good. And He is trustworthy.
Are you like me? It’s so easy to jump to the worst-case scenarios when we don’t know something. And when we find ourselves waiting for answers that simply need more time, it’s easy to get worked up and worried out.
Choices: 4 Tips for How to Walk Through Waiting Seasons Well—And when we find ourselves waiting for answers that simply need more time, it’s easy to get worked up and worried out #tellhisstory #waitingseasons Click To Tweet
We don’t have to give fear the upper hand in our waiting seasons. Instead, we must choose to fix our eyes on God. Spending time in His word and in prayer are essential in forcing fear’s grip on our hearts to loosen.
I love this verse. When we wait for God to work rather than trying to manipulate circumstances in our lives, we can wait in hope. Because we trust God is working, we don’t have to stress ourselves out trying to force things to happen.
What Helps Us Get Through Those Beyond-Our-Control Waiting Seasons
- Nurture the right mindset. Our mindset will determine how well we walk through waiting times. When we choose to focus on God’s character, the waiting can be less anxiety-inducing.
- Bring our uncertainties, our fears, and what-if’s to God. He’s big enough to handle them and to help us navigate them.
- Choose to trust God, no matter what the uncertainty looks like.
- When thoughts begin to loop around the situation that’s tempting us to worry, we need to re-direct our thoughts to the truths found in God’s word.
Eventually all my test results came in. The thing that threw me into an anxious waiting place had resolved itself.
Even if those tests had unveiled my worst nightmare, I knew that I knew God was holding me. He was watching over my family.
When we’re in a place of trusting Him, we’re enabled to wait well. But only if we lift open hands to Him rather than clutched fists.
What about you? What lessons have you learned in an anxiety-inducing time? What is one way you saw God show up in a waiting season?
