You Don’t Have to Fix What God Has Asked You to Wait Through
There are seasons when the hardest thing to do is nothing.
Not because nothing matters.
Not because there is no problem.
Not because we do not care.
But because everything in us wants to step in, take control, solve the issue, force movement, or make something happen simply because waiting feels unbearable.
We are problem solvers by nature.
When something is broken, we want to repair it.
When something feels uncertain, we want clarity.
When something is delayed, we want movement.
When something is painful, we want relief.
And when God seems quiet, we often begin looking for ways to fill the silence ourselves.
But there are times when God is not asking us to fix the situation.
He is asking us to wait through it.
That can be much harder than action.
Because action gives us something to hold.
Waiting often leaves us with nothing but trust.
Sometimes Our Fixing Interrupts What God Is Doing
There is a difference between obedience and interference.
There are times when God clearly tells us to act. Scripture is filled with people who were called to build, speak, go, confront, leave, fight, serve, and obey.
But there are also moments when stepping in too soon creates problems that waiting would have prevented.
We see this in Abraham and Sarah.
God had given Abraham a promise. He would have a son. His descendants would become a great nation.
But time passed.
The promise remained.
The fulfillment did not come.
Eventually Sarah proposed a solution.
Hagar was available.
The plan made sense according to the customs of the time.
And instead of continuing to wait for God’s fulfillment, Abraham and Sarah attempted to produce the promise themselves.
They were not trying to abandon what God had said.
They were trying to fix the delay.
That is an important distinction.
Sometimes we can believe God and still become impatient with His timing.
Sometimes we can trust the promise while trying to control the process.
Sometimes we can become so uncomfortable with waiting that we begin doing things God never asked us to do.
Genesis 16 shows us what happens when human effort steps into a place that still belongs to God.
The result was not peace.
It was conflict.
Because sometimes the thing we create in our impatience becomes another situation we then have to manage.
Waiting Is Not Wasted Time
We often treat waiting as though nothing is happening.
But Scripture rarely presents waiting that way.
Waiting is often where God prepares us.
Waiting exposes motives.
Waiting reveals fears.
Waiting teaches dependence.
Waiting shows us how quickly we reach for control.
Waiting can reveal whether we trust God Himself or simply trust Him when He gives us the outcome we want.
Isaiah 40:31 says:
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength.”
Notice that waiting is connected to renewal.
Something is happening in the waiting.
Strength is being renewed.
Perspective is being changed.
Dependence is being deepened.
Character is being formed.
We may be watching for the circumstance to change while God is working on us.
That does not mean every delay is spiritual training.
Sometimes a delay is simply a delay.
Sometimes circumstances require practical action.
But there are seasons when our constant attempts to escape the waiting keep us from receiving what God is trying to produce in it.
Restraint Can Be Obedience
We often think of obedience as movement.
Go.
Speak.
Build.
Give.
Serve.
Respond.
But sometimes obedience sounds like this:
Wait.
Be still.
Do not answer yet.
Do not force it.
Do not chase it.
Do not interfere.
Do not make a decision simply because you are anxious.
Do not return to something God already brought you out of.
Do not manufacture an outcome.
That kind of obedience can feel almost unnatural.
Because restraint does not always look spiritual.
It can look passive.
It can look like nothing is happening.
It can even feel irresponsible when everyone around us is telling us to do something.
But restraint can require enormous faith.
David understood this.
He had been anointed king, but Saul was still on the throne.
David knew what God had said.
He knew where his life was headed.
And yet the fulfillment of that promise did not happen immediately.
At one point, David had the opportunity to kill Saul.
From a human perspective, the solution was right in front of him.
Remove Saul, and the throne becomes available.
Some of David’s men even interpreted the opportunity as God’s provision.
But David refused.
He would not force the promise.
He would not take by his own hand what God had promised to give in His time.
That is restraint.
That is waiting without manipulation.
That is refusing to become the answer to a promise God Himself made.
Not Every Problem Is Yours to Solve
This can be especially difficult when we care deeply.
We see someone struggling.
We see a situation going wrong.
We see something that could be fixed.
And immediately we begin thinking about what we can do.
But not every burden is our assignment.
Not every crisis requires our involvement.
Not every person needs us to rescue them.
Not every delay needs our intervention.
Sometimes our desire to fix comes from love.
Sometimes it comes from fear.
Sometimes it comes from control.
Sometimes it comes from the discomfort of watching something remain unresolved.
We have to learn the difference.
There are situations where God may be working in someone else’s life in ways we cannot see.
If we constantly step in to remove every consequence, solve every problem, answer every question, or carry every burden, we may unintentionally interfere with what God is teaching them.
And the same is true in our own lives.
We can become so busy trying to remove the discomfort that we never ask what the discomfort is revealing.
What Is the Waiting Showing You?
Waiting has a way of exposing what movement can hide.
When nothing is changing, we begin to see what is happening inside us.
Why am I so desperate to fix this?
What am I afraid will happen if I do nothing?
Do I believe God is still working even when I cannot see progress?
Am I trying to create certainty because uncertainty makes me anxious?
Am I taking responsibility for something God never assigned to me?
Am I moving because He told me to move, or because standing still is uncomfortable?
Those questions are not meant to make us afraid to act.
They are meant to help us discern the source of our movement.
God does not call us to paralysis.
But He also does not call us to panic.
There is a difference between wise action and anxious activity.
Wise action can wait for direction.
Anxious activity feels compelled to do something immediately.
There Is a Time to Move and a Time to Remain
Ecclesiastes reminds us that life has seasons.
There is a time to act.
There is a time to wait.
There is a time to speak.
There is a time to remain silent.
There is a time to hold on.
There is a time to release.
The wisdom is not simply knowing how to move.
It is knowing when.
Sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is move quickly when God speaks.
Other times the most faithful thing we can do is remain exactly where we are until He does.
That means waiting cannot simply be defined as inactivity.
Waiting can be active trust.
It can be prayer.
It can be listening.
It can be preparation.
It can be obedience in the ordinary things already in front of us.
It can be refusing to force what has not yet been released.
It can be allowing God to work without constantly reaching in to rearrange the process.
You Do Not Have to Rescue Yourself From Every Uncomfortable Season
There is something freeing about realizing that discomfort does not always mean something is wrong.
Sometimes discomfort simply means we are in a place where we cannot control the outcome.
And that can be exactly where trust begins to deepen.
We do not have to rush to escape every uncertain season.
We do not have to manufacture movement.
We do not have to force clarity.
We do not have to grab the first solution simply because waiting feels difficult.
Sometimes God is doing something in the space between the promise and the fulfillment.
Something in us may need to become quieter.
Something may need to become stronger.
Something may need to loosen its grip.
Something may need to learn how to trust without evidence.
And if we keep fixing everything too quickly, we may never discover what God was teaching us while nothing seemed to be happening.
Waiting is not always inactivity.
Sometimes restraint itself is obedience.
And sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is stop trying to fix what God has asked you to wait through.
Much Love
~Gayla~
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