So much of our lives are lived in seasons of waiting. Waiting on deliverance. Waiting on direction. Waiting on healing. Waiting on provision. Waiting…

Since moving from Ohio to Texas our family has been thrust out into unknown territory. Territory we have never had to journey through before. I am not talking about physical territory (though that has had its fair share of mystery) but spiritual territory. God taking us through places that feel a little more vulnerable and a lot less safe. We’ve had to seek Him on every sort of matter you could possibly think of. Where to live, where to go to church, where to send our kids to school. How to serve Him as a family in a completely different place with completely different circumstances. How to begin building new relationships while still seeking to cherish the ones that are well established. How to serve the Lord without being on staff at a local church. How to navigate being close to family and loving them well. How to remain cautious yet still optimistic in culture that spiritually feels so strange to us at times. Every single one of these situations have required waiting. And when we are waiting on so many things there comes a point where decisions have to be made without clarity. God provides a way for us to wait on Him without sitting still. It’s mysterious and hard to articulate at times, but it’s a lot like the relationship we see between Habakkuk and God. A word that came to me a few mornings ago.

After begging for God’s intervention among His people, Habakkuk waits for God’s word. The Lord replied:

And the LORD answered me:

“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
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.

Habakkuk 2:2-3

Habakkuk is waiting on God to answer him and stakes out, so to speak, in a posture of hopeful-waiting (Habakkuk 2:1). And the Lord responds with assurances that He will fulfill His word, however long it seems to take. God reminds Habakkuk to wait. To not be discouraged at the grim possibilities of His word coming to pass. But to wait in hope.

God works marvelously when we wait. His word says that He works on behalf of those who wait for Him (Isaiah 64:4).

But what does waiting look like? I think it is very, very rare that waiting means sitting still. Sitting still is often the safest but requires the least amount of dependence on God. Again, not always. But most always.

Waiting was never meant to paralyze us but to cause us to turn our sight away from what holds no power and directs it to the Lord. It reminds me of the exhortation in Hebrews to run the race set before us. “Looking to Jesus” (Hebrews 12:1-2). We run. We go. We step out and do the next thing. But we do it with eyes focused on the source of our faith. The never-failing Savior who went before us. And we trust that as we move forward, however much opposition we face, He’s got us. And all the details we fret over, all the pages left of our story that we have yet to discover, are all stamped with His sovereign reign. This is the banner over every life He purchased with his own blood.

Wow. What a relief!

This has been a difficult season, with a lot of unexpected joys. I feel that most of our lives are that way. Remember that we are not above our Master. This life holds many trials. But He has gone before us. He has removed every obstacle that would cause us to utterly ruin our souls. As we move forward—watching and waiting— we learn to rejoice in His presence right beside us. He is holding our right hand. We have nothing to fear. Nothing to lose. Because He is our everything. He is teaching us all how to run our own race together. Some are jogging. Some are sprinting. Some are losing steam. Some have forgotten the track that has been laid for them. Some need to be taken by the hand and helped along the way. But everyone of us needs to set our eyes on Christ. The source of our strength. The vitality of our souls.

Keep going. Even if you’re waiting. Ask God to bless your going out today and teach you how to wait while moving. How to wait and watch. How to go with confidence that He is holding your right hand.

Whoever reads this, know that you are being prayed for today with a fellow sister that needs this encouragement just as much as you.