In last week’s blog we asked the question: “Have you ever watched someone else receive the very thing you have been praying for?” Then we proceeded to share some insight (please read last week’s blog).
As we continue this topic this week, I can clearly remember the time when I was speaking at a woman’s conference. I was addressing the peace of God and gave an example from my own life of God’s abundant provision of peace during a time of bereavement. It was during the break that I realized a couple of women were struggling with hearing how God provided peace for me during a hard time and not them. Psalm 106:1, Psalm 136:1, and Psalm 118:1 (to name a few) instructs us to praise and give thanks to the Lord for His goodness. Continual worship and praise of God should not diminish because you may interpret your waiting upon the Lord as His rejection.
Don’t Allow Someone Else’s Testimony to Become Your Discouragement
The testimony of another person should encourage your faith—not destroy it. When someone receives an answer to prayer, celebrate what God has done. Their testimony is evidence that God is still working.
TWM’s blog “Our Faith and Our Prayers”, reminds us that prayer is not merely about getting what we want from God. Prayer deepens our relationship with Him and teaches us to seek His will and His promises. So, when you hear someone else’s testimony, do not allow the enemy to whisper, “God does it for everybody except you.” Instead say: “If God can do it for her, I know God is still able to work in my life. I will trust His timing for me.” Your sister’s answered prayer can become a reason to praise God rather than a reason to question Him.
Remember: God’s Blessings Are Not a Competition
God does not have a limited supply of blessings. You do not have to hurry because someone else receives theirs. Their wedding doesn’t mean your marriage is impossible. Their promotion doesn’t mean your opportunity has passed. Their financial breakthrough doesn’t mean God has overlooked your needs. Their testimony doesn’t cancel your testimony. There is enough grace for your journey. There is enough mercy for today. And there is enough power in God to accomplish what He desires for your life.
Psalm 37:7 says, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” Notice the word rest. God doesn’t simply tell us to wait. He tells us how to wait. We are to rest, to trust, to remain faithful, and to not let comparison make us anxious.
What Should You Do While You Wait?
If you are currently waiting for God to answer a prayer or fulfill a desire in your heart, here are a few things you can do.
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Keep praying – Don’t stop talking to God because the answer hasn’t come yet.
Keep believing – Your circumstances may change, but God’s character does not.
Keep growing – Use this season to become spiritually stronger and more mature.
Keep serving – Don’t become so focused on your own blessing that you stop being a blessing to others.
Keep celebrating others – You can genuinely rejoice with someone else while still believing God for yourself.
Keep renewing your mind – Replace thoughts of comparison, jealousy, fear, and discouragement with God’s truth.
And most importantly, keep trusting God’s timing. TWM’s recent blog series, “Keep the Fireworks of Hope Blazing”, speaks directly to the importance of keeping hope alive when discouragement comes. The message is especially important during seasons when circumstances tempt us to lose sight of what God is doing.
Your Waiting Season Has Purpose
Perhaps you are reading this today because you are tired of waiting. You have prayed. You have believed. You have cried. And you have watched other people receive what you are still waiting for. Please do not give up. Your waiting season does not mean your story is over. God may be doing something in you that is more important than what He is doing around you.
Remember Abraham. Remember Joseph. Remember David. Remember Hannah. Their stories remind us that God’s promises do not always come according to our timetable. But God’s delay is not necessarily God’s denial. Sometimes the waiting is part of the preparation. And sometimes the greatest blessing is not simply receiving what you asked of God. Sometimes it is becoming the woman God wants you to be through the process.
Don’t Waste Your Waiting
What if instead of asking, “Why hasn’t God blessed me yet?”, you began asking: “How can I glorify God while I wait?” That question puts your focus back where it belongs. Not on another’s blessing. Not on another’s success. Not on somebody else’s timeline, but on God. Your assignment is not to watch everyone else’s life. Your assignment is to walk faithfully with Jesus. Psalm 16:8 states, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
Do not just wait for your blessing. Grow while you wait. Because one day you may look back and realize that God was not wasting your waiting season.
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He was preparing you.
He was strengthening you.
He was renewing your mind.
He was deepening your faith.
And He was teaching you that your confidence cannot be placed in what you see happening in someone else’s life. It must be placed in the One who holds your life in His hands. So, when you see someone else being blessed, celebrate with them. Then go back to God and say: “Lord, I trust You with my life. I trust Your timing. I trust Your plan. And while I wait, help me become everything You have called me to be.”
Your blessing does not have to arrive today for you to have peace today. Keep believing. Keep praying. Keep growing. Keep hoping. Keep trusting. God is still God while you wait. And your waiting season can still be a blessed season.
Psalm 27:13 states, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” I am praying for you that you will not lose heart. Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” May you believe that you are included in the “all” and that His tender mercies are included in all that He is working out for you. You can believe it because it is true.
Please return each Friday for encouragement from our blogs.
(SPECIAL NOTE: To all who lost loved ones on this date as a result of terrorism, we pray that God will comfort and strengthen you today and always.)
Paula is compassionately committed to biblically teach and mentor women who desire to be renewed in their minds by God’s eternal Word so their destinies will become a reality. She goes beyond sharing biblical principles to practical application for everyday living.
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