Tag Archives: stuck waiting on god

November 6, 2025 · 5:30 AM

Be Patient And Wait

One of the hardest things for me to do is to be patient while God is at work on my behalf. I live by the motto, “Work like it depends on you. Pray like it depends on God.” But there are seasons, like the one I’m in now, where God is at work and He says, “Be still and be patient.” Everything in me wants to jump up and do something as if God needs my help. There’s a line in “Way Maker” that resonates with me right now. It says, “Even when I don’t see it, you’re working. Even when I don’t feel it, you’re working. You never stop working.” Faith is truly about trusting that God is at work when you don’t see it or feel it. It’s about being patient in the waiting knowing that God is going to bless you according to a His goodness and not your good works.

I don’t think Abraham was much different. God was at work, but he couldn’t see it. God had promised him a son when he was 75. Ten years later, there still wasn’t a son and he was getting older. He decided to help God out and married Hagar, his wife’s handmaiden. But when she got pregnant, God let him know that wasn’t what He promised. Sarah would give him a son, but Abraham had to wait another 15 years. That’s a long time to be patient and to trust God to fulfill a promise, especially when your physical condition, or things around you, are telling you the possibility is going down daily. Yet God still requires us to have faith and to be patient.

Psalm 37:7 says, “Be patient and wait for the Lord to act” (GNT). I understand that having patience and waiting on God is tough. It can feel like you’re missing the boat and that you need to do something to make it happen. Learn from Abraham though. If God has promised it, trust Him to fulfill it in His timing, not yours. Even when you see the window of opportunity closing, trust anyway. God does not need our help. He is able. If He can speak the universe into existence, surely He can say the word and turn your impossible situation around. If He can give Abraham a son at 100 years old, He can make a way where there seems to be no way. It’s in the waiting that our faith is stretched and we are prepared for greater things. Don’t give up too early or try to jump in and help. Be patient and wait on the Lord.

Photo by Ante Hamersmit on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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May 12, 2015 · 7:16 AM

Leaving The Doldrums

Not long after Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, other ships began to make the voyage across the pond. Several ships noticed a strange phenomenon as they sailed near the equator. There was very little wind and ships would drift there for weeks or months. In time, this area of the ocean became known as the doldrums. Sailors avoided it because they didn’t take the provisions to survive a trip that got stuck there for a long period. It was a place of stagnation, depression and death which is why it became known as the doldrums.

There are times in life when you and I sail into the doldrums. Everything seems to be going fine, we are moving along and then the wind stops. We begin to float along. We get stuck and can’t seem to get out of the place we are in. It often seems like God has forgotten us. We question ourselves and what we could have done to cause God to leave us in this place. I’ve seen people stay in these types of doldrums for years not knowing how to escape. It seems like their prayers to put wind back in their sails are falling on deaf ears, but that’s not the case.

If you read the first part of Acts, the disciples had been in the doldrums since the crucifixion of Jesus. They had moments where Jesus would appear to them, but when He left, they would feel just as stuck as before. On one of those occasions Jesus spoke to them and said, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift He promised as I told you before. (Acts 1:4 NLT).” Wait? For how long? How could Jesus leave them adrift in the doldrums? It was a dangerous time to be in Jerusalem. Just 40 days before, Jesus had been killed and they feared they were next.

They met in the Upper Room and prayed for the next ten days as they waited. Then Acts 2:2 says, “Suddenly there was a sound from Heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. (NLT)” God sent the wind of the Holy Spirit to fill their sails and push them out of the doldrums. That wind pushed them and the message of Jesus all over the world. They were no longer stuck in their depression and doubt. They were revived and renewed because they waited on the Lord in prayer.

If you’re stuck in the doldrums, let me encourage you not to give up. Wait on the Lord in prayer and ask for Him to send the Wind of the Holy Spirit into your life. I’m talking about spending some serious time in prayer. The disciples prayed and waited in one place until God answered. We need to do the same thing. We need to commit to praying not just a one or two sentence prayer, but an active, waiting on God all day kind of prayer if we truly want out of the doldrums. We need to wait on the Lord until He answers. Be prepared though. When that rushing, mighty wind blows into your life, God will take you farther than you ever dreamed possible.

One final thought: The doldrums are where hurricanes originate from. What seems like a windless place is where God launches the most powerful forces.

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