Episode 5 - Waiting When Nothing Is Changing

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DOWNLOAD Episode 5 Reflection Guide

Show Notes:

Exploring the spiritual and emotional journey of waiting on God's timing, this episode offers insights on patience, trust, and faith during seasons of silence and stillness. Host Stephanie shares personal stories, biblical examples, and practical advice for navigating waiting periods with faith and resilience

 Key  topics

• Waiting on God's timing

• Biblical examples of patience (Abraham, Joseph, David)

• Trust and faith during seasons of silence

• Practical ways to stay spiritually grounded while waiting

• The role of obedience and surrender in waiting

Takeaways

• Waiting is an active phase of growth, not just a passive pause.

• God's work in the unseen prepares us for what we desire.

• The external outcome often masks internal transformation.

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Transcript:

Stephanie:

Sometimes after we do the hard spiritual work, forgiving someone or saying yes when God calls us, we expect things to start moving right away. But often what comes next is waiting.

Hi, friend. I'm really glad you're here.

Welcome back to Glory and Grit, where faith meets real life. If you're new to the podcast, welcome. Or as we learned in Ghana, Akwaaba. You might enjoy starting with the first few episodes where we talk about the heart behind Glory and Grit. I'm your host, Stephanie.

I was actually supposed to be somewhere else right now, but my car wouldn't start. My plans changed and here I am. And honestly, it feels kind of fitting because we're going to talk about waiting when nothing changes.

Have you ever been in a season where you keep praying and nothing is changing? Sometimes the hardest seasons aren't when everything is falling apart. It's when everything is just the same. Praying, same. Situation, same. Answers, silent.

You're not alone in that. Today I want to talk about what it looks like to follow God when the waiting feels endless.

Hmm.

Years ago I had this job where I was really unhappy with the job. I had become unhappy with the job, with the company, with the people that were coming in. And I was praying and waiting. Waiting on improvement, waiting on positive change, waiting on a new perspective, waiting on peace.

And this went on for months and months, day after day. Nothing seemed to be changing. Nothing was getting better. No change in the situation. And really, I was tired and frustrated. And in all transparency, I felt like the Lord was just like, nope, you just gonna sit right there.or like I was being punished for some transgressions in the past, or even if the Lord had so many more important prayers to answer than my situational pettiness, air quotes, because maybe I was just wanting too much, or maybe...  It just wasn't high on his list of important things to do. If you know, it was on his list at all. Maybe, maybe even, maybe even that he might be saying like, at least you have a job, shut up and sit down girl. Or the biggest one of all, is he listening to me? Can he even hear me?

And then of course crazy thoughts. I might have slipped in there like maybe I've done too much and maybe I've moved too far from him so he can't even hear me even if he wanted to.

And maybe you've felt one of these ways before too.

But even today, I had somewhere to be, I had plans in place, and nothing moved. And that's what waiting can feel like sometimes. waiting can feel, waiting can, some of the feelings that waiting can stir up in us stuck.

Like if you're in a relationship and you're waiting for it to shift. If you're waiting for a change in jobs or a change in companies, you just feel stuck like you're standing in quicksand and you can't move. There's no way out. There's nothing you can do except stand there and just suffer it out. So you can feel very stuck where you are.

You can also feel overlooked.  This is especially if you're waiting for some of the heavier things like to be healed, if you're for doors to be opened, if you're waiting for new changes, it can just feel like if those changes aren't happening and you're continuing to fast and to do all the right things, you can feel like... you're being overlooked. Like I said earlier, maybe that, and God does not feel this way, but at that moment I was feeling like, you know, maybe I'm just not high on his list. You can feel forgotten. Like I wasn't always doing the things I was supposed to do.  And so maybe the Lord just forgot to come back and check on me and come back and see if I'm still here, if I still needed something.

And maybe you could even feel confused, confused by why he's not answering you, why he's not sending you the help you need, the job you need, the car you need, whatever it is that you're asking for.

You know, and that brings up questions like, did I hear God wrong?  Did I mess something up? Why isn't anything moving? Why isn't anything happening? I've asked those questions too. And at some point, I think everyone experiences something that makes us question everything we knew, even the things that we were once sure that God had said.

The hardest part sometimes isn't the waiting itself. It's not knowing why nothing is happening.

Sometimes we start to think, well, obedience equals movement. I've been obedient. I've done all the things you asked me to do. I have been the best person that I could be.  I've been a disciple of Christ, therefore things should be moving along. Why are we standing still?

And then we think sometimes, faith equals progress.  I am strong in my faith. I have done all the things that thou has asked me to do. I've been a disciple of Christ. I've been a good person. I read my scriptures. I go to church. So we think - I'm strong in my faith. So there should be progress when I ask the Lord for something. It should be immediate. I shouldn't have to wait, right?

But sometimes obedience is waiting.Being obedient to what the Lord has asked us doesn't all, being obedient to what the Lord has asked us doesn't mean that all of our prayers will be answered immediately. Sometimes it means we have to be, we have to wait because that's what we're being told to do. Whether we want to hear it or not is another thing, but sometimes obedience meanswaiting on the Lord's timing. Do remember that old song? He may not come when you want him, but he'll be there right on time. He's an onetime God. Yes, he is. I love that song. So waiting is a part of being obedient.

Also, we sometimes have to realize that faith means stillness, being still, wait on the Lord.because our faith is strong doesn't mean that we have to jump immediately or that we should jump immediately. Sometimes we should just simply stop in our tracks and be still and listen for what the Lord is trying to tell us. Because...  Sometimes he's trying to tell you no, or he's trying to tell you we need to go another route or we need to do whatever it is. sometimes we just need to stop and be still. Not only he may be trying to tell us something, but it also may not be time to move yet. We just need to sit in it, sit still.

That disconnect is what makes waiting hard.

(Mike Stumper) Just because nothing is changing around you doesn't mean nothing is happening.

We have to take into account, God might be doing a number of things. He might be preparing you. Maybe what you're praying for, you aren't ready for yet. Maybe what you're praying for, you need more strength. You need more sleep. You need more time. You need more energy.

Don't always think that because it's not happening immediately that it's not going to happen. It just may be that you need some preparations first and the Lord's gonna help you work that out. Another thing is he might be strengthening you. Maybe you're not strong enough to be in the environment in which you're praying for.  Maybe you're not strong enough to carry or help someone else who you're going to meet in that environment or situation that you're praying for. It could be many of things that he may want to help strengthen you so that you're prepared and you're strong enough to handle what's about to come.

He also could be slowing you down for a reason. There could be plenty of reasons. The car you're trying to buy might have a bad transmission and the seller isn't telling you that. Or maybe the seller doesn't know that it's about to slip, it's about to go.  Maybe the job you want is going to put you in an environment that's going to test your faith in a way you aren't prepared to handle yet. Maybe that relationship that you're praying will turn into a marriage. God is slowing you down because he knows that that person is, what do you call them? A narcissist. So there could be many reasons why the waiting is really slowing you down. You never know.

The Bible gives us lots of examples of people who had to wait.

-          Abraham waited for his son and Sarah was so old that she even laughed at the mission of them having a baby.

-          Joseph had to wait multiple times. He was thrown in a pit by his brothers. You think your siblings are bad. and sold into slavery so he had to wait to be free. Then he was falsely accused and thrown into jail so he had to wait to be released. Then he had to wait for one of the other prisoners who were released before him to remember him after their release. Then when he came into contact with his brothers again, he had to wait until events unfolded to reunite with his father and the rest of his family.

-          And let's talk about David. David waited on several things as well. Although he was anointed as a teenager, he had to wait years for the throne. Then he had to hide as he was being hunted by a jealous king which he chose to wait for his ascension to the throne, plus he had to wait on the Lord.

Waiting can feel like God's being silent, but the scriptures show us that waiting is one of God's most common ways of working. Okay? So, it's not unusual. It's normal in God's process. And we need to learn to wait on his timing. And I think really at some point we'll learn to do this.

But let's be real for a minute. Sometimes you're left with unexpected feelings while waiting on the Lord. It feels hard. It's frustrating. And it can be lonely.  

Waiting with faith doesn't mean waiting without struggle.

Waiting with faith doesn't mean waiting without struggle.

You can trust God and still feel tired.

Both of these can happen at the same time.

What might be happening while you're waiting? What's waiting doing? Well, one, it can be building your trust because you learn to trust God and again, trust in His timing and you learn to work on that. mean, learn.that after some time and experience doing this that you can trust God. You can trust him to be there for you like he said he would.

What is the waiting doing for you? Well, a couple of things that we can talk about. It might be building trust, helping you learn to not only wait on the Lord, but to trust that he will come through for you.

It might be teaching you to surrender.  My mom had this saying she used to say a lot because I remember it. So she said it a lot. I'm going to do ABC Lord willing. I'm going to go XYZ the Lord willing. And I used to always be aggravated and annoyed young teenager, not knowing it better why she would always say that.

But I've come to now understand that for one, because it is if the Lord's willing. But it's also she was taking this opportunity to surrender her will to His will.  And it's very interesting that my mama taught me that because she didn't go to church a lot. She was a believer. She believed in Jesus Christ. She believed in God and she believed in heaven and hell. She believed in the Bible. So it wasn't that she did not have faith, but she did not actively daily live that faith.

But she would say things sometimes that now I look back on and realize she was doing the best she could, where she could, with what she could. And she was processing those things. So one of her little ways of surrendering to God was to say, you know, Lord willing, if that's something he wants me to do, then I would do it.  So sometimes in waiting, we learn to surrender.

Another thing waiting could be doing, it could be shifting your heart. Maybe you're not in the right, maybe your heart's not in the right place. Maybe you need to be more forgiving before this prayer can be answered. Maybe you need to be more compassionate before this prayer can be answered. Maybe you need to be more human, if you get my drift on that, before this prayer can be answered. So that's another thing that it's doing.

And one of the biggest things I think that it helps you do is learn to depend on God instead of the outcomes. Because sometimes we think, if I get that new car, I'm going to be happy. If I get that new house, I'm going to find joy. If I get that new job, making all that new money, my life will change for the better. So, you're praying to God for the thing, but what you're really looking forward to is the outcome on the other side of the thing.So are you really depending on God or are just trying to get to the other side? Does that make sense? Okay.

Sometimes the work is happening in you.

Sometimes the work is happening in you.

Sometimes God changes the situation and sometimes He changes us while we're in it.

If you're in a season where nothing is changing, God hasn't forgotten you. Your prayers still matter. This isn't wasted time. You're learning and growing or things are being prepared for you.

Waiting isn't a waste when God is involved.

I'm starting to say to myself, if you're still in the waiting, God is still in the working. I think that that may help me in my future seasons of waiting and continue to help me remember that nothing doesn't mean nothing.

Maybe the goal right now isn't for everything to change. Maybe it's just to keep walking with God in the middle of it.

If you're in a waiting season right now, my prayer is that God renews your strength right where you are.  The scripture I'd like to leave with you today is Isaiah 40-31.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint.

I'm your host Stephanie. Thank you for joining me today.

If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who also might be in this waiting season.

If you need a place to process, the reflection guides are on the website.

And remember, glory doesn't come without grit."