Still Single: Let's talk about WAITING!

March 15 / 4 min re​ad

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Heyy friends! Thank you SO much for being patient with me. I can't believe it's been five whole months since I last posted something!! 

​As I was cutting a mango today, trying to decide how I should spend the extra time I gained from my class being cancelled, the Holy Spirit brought this blog to mind. So here I am, about to try to write a post in twenty minutes...(Lord help me 😅).

When I planned this series last year, I wasn't planning on talking about waiting so soon...but I feel like God is prompting me to share about it today, and so I'm gonna talk to you about some things I've learned that have really helped me. You might not be waiting on relationships - maybe you're waiting on God to change your heart in a particular area you're really wrestling through or help you get through a really difficult season or something else. I think we're all in seasons of waiting, though, and so I pray this encourages you :).

If we were sitting in a coffee shop together (with cute green plants and everything ;) ), this is what I'd tell you: 

Sweet friend, waiting is hard. I don't want to invalidate that at ALL. It is so so so so soooo sosososososooo hard. I feel you!! But it's the most refining thing at the same time, and it's in the waiting that I've grown the most. And it's okay that it's hard. God walks in it with you, and He understands and feels your pain...man, think about all the people God is waiting on to turn to Him and be saved! But God is patient our whole lives long, and He's not in a hurry. ​

Let's talk about timing, first. Something I heard in a video once was this: "God may not be early, but he will NEVER be late." One of my favorite verses for waiting is Habakkuk 2:3 "For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end - it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay." The first time I read that verse, it made me giggle: 

I love that line that's essentially saying, "If it seems slow, well, wait for it!! It's gonna come." That reminds me too of a line I first heard from the cuuutest kid show, Bluey, that says, "Hurry up and wait!" 

But here's the comforting part: God is never late. God's plan is never running behind. Everything has an appointed time - there's a season for everything! (Eccl. 3). I don't know if you're meant to be married or not. But if you are, God will not leave you single even a minute longer than what He knows to be right, perfect, and best. And if you don't have it right now, you must not need it right now. 

Another thing that has really been helping me recently is trusting in God's WISDOM. I think a lot of times we default to trusting that He's in control, or that He loves us, which is so so true, but what about His wisdom?

Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

I know it's really easy for me to think, "Oh yeah, God's ways are like...a liiiitle better than my ways." But it's like, uhhh no, duude, God's ways are like WAYY better than your ways!! Do you know how much higher the heavens are from the earth?? His ways are incomparable to ours! 

I love what Job 12:13 says: "'With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding.'" God understands and sees all things. If you're currently in a season of waiting, it's not because God just wants to mess with you and make you suffer. He is the wisest person in the universe, and He sees something that you don't - well, actually, He sees EVERYTHING that you don't. What may feel like rejection right now could be God's PROTECTION over you. Can you trust in His wisdom? 

Trusting in His LOVE for you is huge, too. At a camp I went to last year, they said, "It will always be hard to trust me (God) if you don't remember my love." God loves you. And out of his love comes this season - this beautifulll, refining, HARD season of waiting. This season is so so special. Why? Because it's intentional. And it's out of love for you. It's for your GOOD, always. God has you in this particular season because He wants to be close to you - and it's often in the waiting that we draw closest to God. 

Because honestly, I feel like in the waiting I'm definitely least in control ! And there's nothing much I can do but press in to Him - to commit my way to the Lord, trusting Him, and that HE will act (Psalm 37!). May this season of waiting be an opportunity for you to press in to the Lord. 

I was reading this passage with one of my friends the other day and a thought struck me - what if God WANTS us to be in seasons of waiting? We try to so quickly speed up the season and get to the next one - but what if God wants us to slow down and learn to wait on him? What if it's in that that we learn to depend most on Him? And if depending on God is the pathway to a deeper relationship with Him, why are we trying to skip through a season that might actually be a gift of closer intimacy with the Father? 

oh oh wait before I share that passage, I just came across another one...(good thing this is our little coffee date, otherwise this is negative points for orderly blogging hehe). I LOVE this: "And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you." (Psalm 39:7). What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for a guy? For a girl? OR, are you waiting for God to reveal more of Himself to you? (Some wisdom from my mama! <3)

Also - the waiting is NOT the fault of any person or lack of person or circumstance. The waiting always comes ultimately from GOD. All of our hearts are streams in the palm of God's hand (Prov. 21:1), and if He wanted that person to be in your life and in a relationship with you, He is mooreeeee than capable of doing so right now if that's what He knew was best. But if not, there's intention in that!

Something I've been asking myself recently is the question, "How is this securing my undivided attention for the Lord?" There's a passage in 1 Corinthians 7 (v. 35 to be exact) that talks about how our singleness secures our undivided attention for the Lord. As I go about my day -- okay, sorry, I'll be honest...I did this for a few times last week and haven't been remembering to do it until just now 😅 - this question helped me remember the intentionality of the season and how God is trying to grow me.

This waiting season did not happen TO you. It's happening FOR you. For your good!! Perhaps God is still preparing you both behind closed doors right now. But when it's time, if that's in God's will for you, the pieces will fall into place. Look at God's track record: He's been matchmaking from the very beginning. 

Last thing because I'm out of time -- ask God to speak into your season of waiting. What does He have for you in this? For me, God brought to mind Matthew 6:33 - "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

ADDED to you. If you don't get anything else out of this post, get this: You don't have to go out there and find your man (or woman for you guys). He doesn't need to find you, either. Your job is to seek GOD first, and the plans He has for you RIGHT NOW, and when it's time (if that's in His plan for you), GOD will BRING that person into your life. God already found him. You don't have to seek it out (1 Cor. 7:27 !!). 

Besides, I've been learning that you can't serve two masters, anyway. It's soooo draining and exhausting and yea, it doesn't work. It drains all the joy from the season!! Seek God in the waiting, and ask Him where He's calling you to right now. You are God's before you ever will become someone else's, and you'll always be HIS first. 

Also...find the parallels !! All those things you're longing for in a s/o -- ask God to reveal to you how He already fills that longing wayyy more than someone else ever could! Know your identity and that everything you need is ALREADY in Christ. 

Okay I'm late to work now so I gotta go...praying this encourages somebody :)) Love you all!! Thanks for being patient with my slowness (hahaha, or maybe this very late post was meant to be a lesson on waiting, too xD) and with my rambling coffee shop thoughts. Oh, and the passage I referenced earlier that I read with my friend was Psalm 130!! :) Ah mannn Scripture has brought SO much comfort to me in seasons of waiting and I pray this prompts you to go look more of them up...

...hahaha I'm back I have one more thing: PRAY PRAY PRAY. This might sound a little crazy but honestly waiting has become a season that I really really love and am really really grateful for (which doesn't mean it's not hard). But I would be nowhere close to saying anything like that if it hadn't been for prayer...not just asking God to help me love this season and to be able to SEE the beauty in this season, which yes, please do pray that because I think He really loves to answer that prayer! - but also because I try to process everything with God. I'm walking in this season WITH God, through prayer. 

When this season gets hard, talk to God. When it's going well, talk to Him and celebrate with Him. In every step of the way, be in constant communication with your loving Father <3. He longs for you to come to him and to walk with Him in it and teach you how to delight in Him in the midst of it. I think that's where the beauty comes from - for we were made to walk in the cool of the garden with the Lord our God, and it's often in seasons of waiting that we do that most ☺️ (prolly because it's so crazy hard). 

​alright, love y'all! i'm out ;) for real now hopefully hehe.

friend,
you are seen, loved, and treasured,
​
and that'll never change, no matter what your status is :)
​

Click here for my playlist that helps me in waiting ;) 

And here are some specific songs that have encouraged me: