The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
SoulFit: Why Waiting is so Hard
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We pivot from a planned study on Sarah and Hagar to wrestle with why God’s silence stings, how waiting exposes control and identity, and where scripture points us toward renewal and trust. A small, timely encouragement lands as a reminder that delay can be design, not neglect.
• why waiting tests trust more than patience
• control versus surrender in Proverbs 3:5–6
• waiting as preparation beneath the surface
• renewal and stamina from Isaiah 40:31
• identity doubts and strength in Psalm 27:14
• perseverance as faith’s muscle in James 1:2–4
• a real story of delayed signs and perfect timing
• a weekly practice to name, pray, release, and replace with scripture
If you have any thoughts, comments, or questions, send those to me. Anything I can do to pray over your life, please send that. And not only the things that really are on your heart heavy, if you have any blessings, send those and let’s celebrate those blessings.
Welcome to SoulFit. Thank you for taking a little time to join us today. If this is your first time to SoulFit, welcome. Each week, I share a little message, how we take some scripture and apply it to our practical daily lives. I share that through a live call that we have each week. And I just record that live call and invite you to join us on that live call, join in as we talk. And I share that message each Friday. So thank you so much for joining us and welcome to SoulFoot. And let's join the live call. So we are going to we we are going to have a five-week series. And originally when I sent out about what we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about Sarah and Hagar. And we are going to, but we're going to talk about it next week. But as I as I thought more about it this week, I mean had some challenges this week, I thought it'd just be a good as I shared before, that as I thought, well, as I learn it and think about it and it challenges me, then maybe I can we can share that together and go through it together. And also grow through it together. Because, you know, the earlier this week, it's maybe Wednesday. So to be real honest, I was I was praying and said, you know, God, I need, I need some answers. I need you to show me something. And I'd listened to a sermon, I think earlier that day or the day before, and I said, and I don't want it to be retroactive. I mean, like I was real particular. I was like, don't, I mean, I I'm not looking for a sign like, you know, that sermon you listened to yesterday, that's really was your sign, you know. And I said, I don't, I just, I don't need anything subtle. I just really need something that goes, this is a sign. I was just kind of really being honest because a lot of times we ask for a sign, but and then we see something or hear something go, was that it? I'm not sure. I was like, I just really need something that says, this is it. Because, and so, and so here's my thinking. So I prayed it. I'm having my phone sitting here on the desk, and I thought, I mean, probably while I'm praying it, my text is probably gonna go off. Something's gonna happen, and that's gonna be it. And I can't, I was waiting for my phone while I was praying this to probably ding or something like that, or something to happen, somebody come in, something. It never happened. So I thought, okay, when I finish the prayer, probably then, probably he'll send me a message of some sort, surely. And and then nothing. And then I thought, well, I mean, I was I was probably too much of a hurry. So maybe I'll give him a little time. Maybe he needs a little time, maybe he's he's kind of he's got a lot going on. I mean, this is my actual thinking. I'm just sharing how I actually think. And so all afternoon, nothing came. And and then the next day, nothing came. So here I am, find myself waiting. And so we're gonna talk about when waiting tests our faith. And how many times have you asked for something and wanted a sign, won something, and then expected to maybe walk through the door, show up, mean, just happen. I don't think it to be a big spotlight down. Yes, like the thing that you're asking for, there's a big spotlight from heaven that says, This is it, this is the thing you've been looking for. But then again, it still didn't happen. And I think that happens to us so many times that we we ask for it, we whatever that is, and we just don't get it when we want it. And so we're gonna talk about, you know, why waiting feels so hard. And, you know, why does it feel so hard? And what does it reveal? And so we're gonna talk about that. And and the interesting thing is as I was getting ready for today, you know, he kind of talked to me and kind of answered, you know, why we really wasn't getting an answer. And so through that, I think it is an answer. But it was, you know, waiting is really one of God's greatest tools for spiritual growth. It doesn't really just test our patience, it really tests our trust. What are we trusting in? And you know, and the thing about it sometimes it what it reveals, because really, you know, I was asking, I was saying, Lord, you know, this is was part of my prayer on Wednesday, was show that I'm making a difference. Uh, you know, when people I can see, you know, I feel I make a difference. I I can tell. But there's so many things if I put on YouTube and I spend time doing a podcast with Alan Hugator for men, and get, I mean, just all the things, and and I put things out there and it just doesn't seem like it gets much traction. And sometimes I feel like, God, I don't think it, I don't know if it makes a difference. I just, I don't, you know, I don't think so. And so as I thought about what does that reveal about me, one of those things was what do we fear? And my fear was, am I putting all this work into all these things and it's not making a difference? It's not mattering. Or, you know, do I depend on, you know, it reveals maybe what do I depend on? Maybe, maybe it's saying, Do you really need not accolades, but recognition? And I then it made me think, well, is that, you know, so it made me think about it, these things. Well, is that what I need? Is that what is that what it's showing about me? And then maybe that then that's maybe something in me that I need to work on. And then it also showed, you know, what are we trying to control? Am I trying to control how things get heard and seen? Am I trying to be in control of that? And and then it, then I think, okay, where should my faith be anchored? If if we've talked about what's the next right step to do, is that the right thing? And I believe all that that I'm working on doing is the right thing. But sometimes I do. I'm I just wondered, is it done, you know, does it come out into the world null and void? And yes, we talk about save a starfish, and it's just for one. And it's really good in theory. But really, sometimes when you do the work and you think there's gotta be more. And it's it, I'm just really being honest about it because sometimes I think we all ask that. Yes, I'm doing this, but what else? There's gotta be more. And so, so really starting this, I thought, you know, let's all go through it together. Because I I don't think I'm alone in those feelings and those thoughts and those prayers when we go, you know, you gotta give me something, God. I need something. You know, and and the funny thing is, is, you know, because what happens? We talked about this in walk and talk. What happens when we ask a question in Google? How quickly do we get a response? Immediate. Immediate. Yeah. And so, you know, how how would you feel if you typed in whatever question you had in Google? And back in the the uh dial-up days, you might have had to wait this long, but you had to wait. What if I typed in my question to Google? Show me a sign, and it didn't respond within seconds, and then I waited an hour and it didn't respond. I waited a day and it didn't respond. And it didn't run, wait, and I in two days it didn't respond. I'm just sitting there looking at my screen. You know, but that's the kind of return we want from God. We want the the 0.12 milliseconds response from God when we have some pretty big things sometimes we're asking. And and so we're gonna talk about what is he, you know, what's he doing? What's what's he doing when we're asking questions? Is he not paying attention? Is he taking care of somebody else's prayers? Are we numbered 99, 100,000 million in line, and we got to wait our turn? What's going on that we have to be waiting? And so we're gonna talk about four different things that what waiting does. And waiting, waiting exposes our need for control. And think about this. Think about when you're waiting and you're waiting for that answer, or even if you're waiting, if you have to wait a little bit longer when you ask Google, we start thinking, why hasn't this happened yet? Here's a big one. Did I do something wrong? Wait, did I ask the wrong way? I don't think, I mean, I think there's a formula for the the way you're supposed to ask for something from God. Maybe it's maybe it's a sandwich. Maybe you you have a blessing that you thank him for, and then you tell him you need, and then you finish up with a blessing. And then maybe you add an extra blessing just for he'll give you special attention. Maybe. But I think sometimes we think that we have to have this special thing. And so when I the other day when I prayed, I was really honest. I was like, I don't want anything retroactive, I need something new, I need something fresh. You know, I just need something, and I and I really think it's okay for us to talk to him like that to share how we're feeling. And then it also exposes our need for control because our thought goes, wait, should I be doing more? Is there more I should be doing trying to get what I'm asking for? And or here's a big one. Well, it's been a day and a half since he answered. I guess I need to take it over. Maybe I need to be responsible for that. And we're going to talk about next week, Sarah and Hagar, what happens when we take over? It doesn't turn out so well. And so if we if we look at Proverbs 3, 5 through 6, it says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your understanding, your own understanding in all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your path straight. So many times when we try to be in control, we're trying to lean on our understanding. When that verse right there says, Don't lean on your own understanding. Submit to him. We have to have that trust. That's where our trust comes in. And he will make our path straight. It won't necessarily look straight sometimes, but it will get us to the destination we want. So waiting forces us to choose trust God or trust ourselves. And in waiting, sometimes we don't trust God, we trust ourselves. Deaflands we'll find out next week with Sarah and Hagar how that works out. And then the second thing is, and and I think a lot of us feel like this, is waiting feels inactive. It's like you're being inactive. I'm just sitting here waiting. Because again, control, if we're doing something, then we feel like okay, we're doing something. We're in control. So waiting feels like we're just being inactive. And we often think, well, if nothing's happening, then nothing is happening. There can't be anything else going on. But spiritually, waiting equals preparing. What if in the waiting you're being prepared? You know, when seeds are planted, do we see anything come up? When you plant a seed in a garden, seeds grow underground before anything appears. I mean, the sermon I was listening to this week is talking about the mustard seed and and you know how you know the dirt is important and the dirt in our life is important because it, you know, out of that dirt grows something pretty amazing. So when we don't see anything, we think there must be something wrong. But underneath all that dirt is where the preparing is waiting to happen. It's gonna happen. And that's what waiting is. Waiting is preparing us spiritually. And as I in Isaiah 40, 31, it says, But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on the wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. And and and I have to be honest, when I when I was praying earlier this week, it was about the reason I was praying is because, Lord, I was thinking, why am I running so hard if it's not making a difference? I'm kind of getting tired of it, Lord. And I was being honest and I was being serious and saying this is kind of what it is, because he already knows our heart. So me just saying it, he already knows it. It's not like I'm hiding anything from him. It's not like I got this, you know, I'm covering up my heart with the little secret. He already knows it. And I'm just expressing how I'm feeling. And and but yet again in Isaiah it says they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary. And in scripture, it sounds really great. And you think that's what I should do. And then we go, Well, I'm growing weary, I feel bad. Well, I'm not doing it right. Well, that's why he didn't answer me. Well, that's why he didn't give me a sign, because I'm not doing it right. But we've talked about before, if we look in the Bible, there's over and over and over, there's so many people that didn't do it right. Sarah didn't do it right. And Hagar was still blessed. Hagar's child was still blessed. It's still, even when we don't do it right, we still get blessings, we still get answers. It doesn't have to be perfect. And I think so many times in our prayer life and our living, we think it has to be perfect, and it doesn't. And we think the waiting is a punishment when really the waiting is preparing us spiritually, preparing us for what is to come. And the third thing is waiting tests our identity. When things are delayed, we begin to think, wait, am I forgotten? Did he forget about me? Did am I not worthy? Because I think the person in the pew next to me, they seem way more worthy than me. Or the person next to me on the treadmo looks way worthier than me. I don't look that worthy. Maybe they're more worthy. Or did he change his mind? Like, I mean, because we think God just changes his mind, because we do, right? So we think, oh, God must have just changed his mind, like, oh, that's a bad idea. You know, no, but but those things come out. So we start to think about those. And in Psalms 27, 14, it says, wait for the Lord, be strong, and take heart and wait for the Lord. Wait for the Lord, be strong. But yet we still have those questions. But what if we look at it as waiting again is not punishment, it's development. In the waiting, we're being developed. We're being developed in that waiting because sometimes, get this. Sometimes we have to be developed in order to receive what God has planned for us. If He gave us what we were asking for at the moment, we're not ready for it. So in that waiting is when we're growing, is when we're underground, we're in the dirt. So when we come out of the dirt, we start to grow, we're now able to receive what God has planned for us. And so many times in the waiting, we go, well, it's just not doing any good. But we're not ready to receive yet what he has for us because what we think we want is not near as great as what he has in store for us. And the last one is waiting strengthens our faith muscle. Just like we lift the weights, the waiting strengthens our faith muscle. It grows in the seasons. The faith grows in the seasons when we don't have answers, when we don't see any progress, when we don't feel in control. And in James 1, 2 through 4, it says, Consider a pure joy, my brothers and sisters. Whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may mature and complete, not lacking anything. Again, in the waiting is where we're being developed. It is where we have to be faithful most that it produces our perseverance. It produces that just like we lift the dumbbells, we go the point one more. It is building us, it's building our faith muscle because we're having to be faithful in those moments. And it doesn't make it easy. But again, as we go through these things, as we talk about waiting, exposes our need for control. As we talk about waiting feels like being inactive, waiting tests our identity, and waiting strengthens our faith muscles. Does it make sometimes the waiting easier? No, honestly, it doesn't. But it helps us understand it a little bit better, and the only way we get better at it is if we're we keep doing it, because the testing of your faith produces perseverance. So, what does that mean? That means our faith is gonna be tested over and over and over and over. Just like when you come in and lift weights, you do it over and over and over. And what happens? You get stronger, you get stronger and stronger. And and so as I mentioned earlier in the week, I prayed on Wednesday, waiting for you know a ding to go off, a phone call to happen, something to happen. And I was like, and and I didn't want a retroactive sign, I needed it, you know, current. And waited the rest of the day, Wednesday. I mean, I even I even prayed with my palms open. I was like, I mean, I'm ready to receive. I gave it all. I I mean I sandwiched the blessing. I did, I did it all. Got got nothing. Um, as I tell Kim, I got bubkiss. Nothing. Nothing, Lord. Thursday, nothing. And then today I received a couple signs from two different people. One that mentioned that they enjoyed my Fit by Friday email, and then another one that said they were excited about today's our five-week series about waiting for God because she mentioned that that's challenging, that's tough, that's hard because we all need it. And that was God saying and the one said about Fit by Friday, she goes, I meant to tell you early in the week and I just forgot. Huh? You mean God knew what I was gonna ask for? He had perfect timing and he waited until today to tell me about it. He waited, he made her forget, and I've I've seen her most every day and kept forgetting. I didn't jog any memories, and he waited for the perfect moment today to tell me, and within an hour of each other to share that with me. So he let me sweat it out a little bit, kind of like a sweat box, made me sweat it out a little bit. But that's just a small thing that I have to remember that that in the small thing when I ask for that, when we have big things, it'll come, but I had to be, I needed to ask. I needed to keep praying those things, I need to keep having those conversations. It wasn't a one prayer and done, even though I did it all the right ways and I did it all the wrong ways. It's just sometimes I said, God, this is what you get. You know, this is as good as you get, this is as good as I got today. And Wednesday was just a bad day for me all around. And so I wasn't very cordial with him. I wasn't just really keen on everything going on just in general. So it was just kind of a lousy day. So he got he got the lousy air. He maybe didn't get to see the air that showed up this morning in classes, he got to see the lousy earn. So that's sometimes how we show up. So this week I challenge you. You know, Isaiah 40, 31 is really our our challenge scripture. But this, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on the wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. So name what you're waiting for. What are you waiting for? Pray over it daily. I didn't stop praying when I didn't get on Wednesday, I just kept praying for it. Release control each time worry starts to show up, and then replace that worry with that scripture, Isaiah 40, 31, and replace it and keep running, don't grow weary, walk, don't be faint. So that's really the challenge. And next week we are going to talk about Sarah and Hagar when we try to help God. So that'll be a fun topic next week. And just one final thing to leave with that waiting doesn't mean God is late, it means he's intentional. So he's being intentional, he's not late, he's never early, he's never on time, he's never late. I mean, it's always his perfect timing. So um, if you have any thoughts, comments, or questions, send those to me. Anything I can do to pray over your life, please send that. Um, as we have the prayer pal box, it doesn't have to be written and put in there. Text it to Kim, to me, whatever. And not only the things that really are on your heart heavy, if you have any blessings, send those and let's celebrate those blessings. So I'm just gonna finish up in prayer so everybody can get on with their lunchtime and their day. So we'll just go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us all together in all of our different places, Lord, that we bring come together in one place and we can share our hearts with you. Share our pain, share our struggles, share our joys. And we just ask that, as we talked about today in waiting, that we are being grown, we are being developed, and that everything you do is intentional and it is your timing and it builds our faith. And we just pray that we walk that. We don't grow weary, Lord. We just ask for the strength to do that. And and we just release control of those things that we're waiting for, release them to you, knowing that faith shows us over and over again that your timing will be perfect timing. And I just ask that you bless each one here today as they go out about their day and about their weekend. Keep them safe and give them the strength and to be an example to you and for you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you everybody for joining me today. And I look forward to seeing everybody next week when we talk about a little bit. Say, Sarah and Hagar, thank y'all. And thank you to each of you today for joining me on SoulFit. I look so forward to joining us right here next time on SoulFit.