Finding Faith in the Waiting

Faith

Apr 22

Tuesday morning did not start off as gently as I had hoped.

The weather outside was gorgeous. Clear, blue skies and 68°F temperatures that made me ache to step outside in the northern Alabama breeze. The day had the anticipation of peace and hope.

But unfortunately, those dreams in my head quickly exchanged for tension and hard words. The kind of conversation that lingers in your chest long after it is over.

My husband and I were just having a hard discussion about my business—you know, the one I have been pouring into for last eight years. The one that has not looked the way either of us hoped it would. And the painful truth came out plainly: something needs to change.

The hubby tried to encouraged me to reevaluate, to consider getting another job to help with finances, and to pray about it more.

And that’s where something in me completely broke.

Because if I’m honest, I feel like I have been praying. For years. Through every pivot, every idea, every quiet season, every spark of hope that did not quite turn into what I thought it would.

So in a moment of frustration—tears welling, voice tight—I said the words I didn’t plan to say:

I am tired of praying about this. I am done praying about it. I just want it to be done.

And then I hung up the phone.

When God Meets You in the Middle

I didn’t have a plan after that. I was angry and frustrated. So I did what I always do when my flesh wants to ruin my day. I reached for my Bible app, almost out of instinct more than intention.

And wouldn’t you know…it led me straight to the book of Habakkuk.

A prophet who wasn’t delivering messages from God to the people, but bringing complaints to God on behalf of the people.

That detail alone stopped me. Sound familiar? How many of us have done that very thing when we feel alone in our frustrations. But I didn’t feel alone in that moment.

Habakkuk was confused and he was waiting. He was wondering why he had been praying so hard, but felt as if God did not want to answer him in the way he had hoped.

But here is what struck me the hardest:

Habakkuk assumed God wasn’t listening when in reality, God was actually answering. Just maybe not in the timing or the way he wanted.

God’s “No” Is Still an Answer

The realization that “no” or “not yet” is uncomfortable, isn’t it?

Because it forces us to consider that silence (or what feels like silence) might not actually be absence. It might be an answer we do not fully understand yet.

God tells Habakkuk something that felt like it was written directly for my heart this morning:

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. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
-Habakkuk 2:2-4

I was absolutely floored. I had to read it again…

Write the vision; make it plain… For still the vision awaits its appointed time… If it seems slow, wait for it.

Wait for it.

Not “I need you to hustle more.” Not “Why aren’t you striving harder?”

Not a push for worry, panic, or to pivot yet again in a way that feels endless.

Wait.

And that kind of waiting? It’s not passive. It’s not giving up. It’s choosing to trust that there is a bigger picture unfolding. A picture that is one we cannot fully see from where we stand.

The Middle Is the Hardest Place to Be

What I realized is that I am not at the beginning of this dream that God placed on my heart anymore. But I am also not at the fulfillment of it either.

I’m in the middle. Ugh…The MESSY middle.

And it is in these “messy middle” seasons of life where the enemy chooses to make that voice of doubt in my mind a bit louder.
Where the outside voices feel heavier and where you start questioning if you heard God wrong in the first place.

But throughout the bible and my life, it is in this messy middle where God does some of His deepest work.

Because the truth is that the middle requires something the beginning does not. Faith without visible proof.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

-Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Checking My Heart: What Am I Hoping In?

Another part of Habakkuk 2 hit me in a way I did not expect—the warnings about misplaced hope.

Wealth. Security. Power. Pleasure. Control.

If I am being completely honest, my frustration was never just about “waiting on God.”

It was about wanting certainty.
Wanting stability.
Wanting results and “worldly proof” that I could point to the quiet the outside voices.

And when those things did not come, it felt like everything was unraveling. I felt like I was wasting my time and that prayer was not working.

But God is so incredibly good. No matter how immature I am in my faith and relationship with him, He chose to immediately and gently reveal something to me that calmed my soul:

If my hope is anchored in outcomes and worldly measures of what is worthy instead of Him and how he sees me, I will always feel shaken when outcomes do not come.

Choosing Faith Anyway

Then came the verses that felt like a deep breath for my soul:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor the fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
-Habakkuk 3:17-19

Even when there’s no visible growth.
Even when things feel barren.
Even when nothing looks like it is working.

Yet, God.

Those two words carry so much weight in the faithful life of a Christian.

God gives us a decision. A choice and a posture to trust in Him and his plan. To remain steadfast and place a quiet defiance against despair.

Not because everything is exactly the way I want it to be, but because God is still good.

For the One Who Is Waiting

Maybe you’re here too.

In the middle of something that feels unclear.
Holding onto a promise that feels delayed.
Tired of praying the same prayers over and over again and not seeing anything move.

If that’s you, I want you to hear this:

God is not ignoring you. He is never late. And your obedience and waiting is not wasted.

You may not see what He sees or may not understand His timing. But in all of that, it doesn’t mean He isn’t working.

Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is not to have all the answers but to take your place at the watchpost—just like Habakkuk—and say:

“I will wait. I will watch. I will trust.”

As I sat at my kitchen island, still emotional, still uncertain, I felt God gently pressing this truth into my spirit:

You are not behind.
You are not forgotten.
You are not doing this alone.

The vision has not died. It is just not finished yet.

And maybe, just maybe, the waiting isn’t the obstacle.

It is the keystone where the wall of your faith is being built.