Great Expectations: How to Fearlessly Wait with Faith

Jerusha: Since this post is all about waiting, I thought I’d end your wait for another giveaway by offering a free paperback copy of Jaime Jo Wright’s The House on Foster Hill! Leave a comment below to enter the giveaway!

I hung up the phone with a relieved breath. In the next few seconds, a smile found my face as the frustration and worries I’d been carrying for a month or more faded away.

I’d been waiting a long time to hear news—either good or bad. I’m used to waiting. A lot. But this time, the wait was harder to bear.

I started getting plagued by frustration, anxiety, and doubts. What did the long wait mean? Why was it taking so long?

A wait as long as this without any word was not what I had expected. I knew to anticipate many months to pass with no news, but for the wait to last a year with no good news or even bad news seemed unprecedented.

But I couldn’t do anything about it, so I continued to wait, battling fears and doubts as I prayed for faith and results.

The phone conversation finally lifted my burden. The person I’d talked to was able to shed light on my situation. She gave me an explanation for the unusual length of my wait, the reason I hadn’t heard any news. Her explanation even included a silver lining of hope.

She also revamped my expectation for the future. I now have a game plan and a new timeline that includes more waiting, but with a better understanding of how long the wait may be.

I felt so relieved and much more hopeful after this conversation.

All of us have to wait for something in our lives. Whether it’s waiting for medical test results, the delivery of a baby, the empty nest, the death of a loved one. Sometimes it’s waiting for a birthday, a promotion, or winning results in a contest or sport.

What we learn early on in life is that waiting is hard. It isn’t fun. And it’s not for the fainthearted.

I find that I’m a fairly patient person with short, unimportant waits, and I can even be patient with longer, more significant ones. But I’m also learning that I have weak spots in my waiting abilities. The situation I just went through showed me elements that I hadn’t realized need to be in place for me to wait well—without fear, doubts, and impatience.

Apparently, I only wait patiently when I know the why—the explanation for the wait—and when my expectations already align with the wait’s duration.

Without explanation and accurate expectations, I’m a doubting, frustrated, anxious mess.

If you’ve ever had to wait without knowing why, or when you didn’t expect the wait to be so long, I’m guessing you get where I’m coming from. Maybe you’ve felt exactly the same way.

After my phone call, though, I started to reflect on how I went from despairing and anxious to hopeful and peaceful in the span of about twenty-five minutes. And nothing in my situation had even changed.

But I got my explanation and right expectations, so that was a change.

No, that’s what I thought, too. But, much to my chagrin, I realized I’d already had the explanation and expectations I needed to have all along.

EXPLANATION

The reasons for why I had to wait so long, and the reasons you have to wait in your situation, are always the same.

We must wait because God wants us to.

We must wait because God is at work.

We must wait because God’s plan for us includes this waiting.

Ultimately, the only explanation we need to wait for anything with peace instead of fear is this: Our Father wants us to wait because He loves us more than we even love ourselves.

For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
– Psalm 108:4

EXPECTATION

The expectations we should have when we’re waiting are also always the same.

We should expect God to be in control.

We should expect God to work for us and through us and our circumstances.

We should expect God to manage every detail of timing for the best results at the best moment.

Ultimately, the only expectation we need to wait for anything with peace instead of fear is this: Our Father is using, and will use, our waiting for GOOD, no matter what.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

The next time we find ourselves anxiously waiting for something, not knowing why or what to expect, let’s remember that we do know why and we do know what to expect. And it’s pretty great.

Are you waiting for something? How do you wait with patience and peace? Please share!

Photos by Samuel Zeller, Jon Tyson, and Timo Volz on Unsplash. Original graphics designed by Jerusha Agen.

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I’m excited to offer you this giveaway of the award-winning suspense novel, The House on Foster Hill. Simply leave a comment below for a chance to win a paperback copy! (Giveaway ends April 22, 2019. Randomly selected winner will be emailed with notification. Winner must have continental U. S. mailing address.)

Kaine Prescott is no stranger to death. When her husband died two years ago, her pleas for further investigation into his suspicious death fell on deaf ears. In desperate need of a fresh start, Kaine purchases an old house sight unseen in her grandfather’s Wisconsin hometown.

But one look at the eerie, abandoned house immediately leaves her questioning her rash decision. And when the house’s dark history comes back with a vengeance, Kaine is forced to face the terrifying realization she has nowhere left to hide.

A century earlier, the house on Foster Hill holds nothing but painful memories for Ivy Thorpe. When an unidentified woman is found dead on the property, Ivy is compelled to discover her identity.

Ivy’s search leads her into dangerous waters and, even as she works together with a man from her past, can she unravel the mystery before any other lives–including her own–are lost?