Your Ability to Wait

Waiting is hard.
Not just because nothing seems to be happening—but because everything is.

In this episode, we unpack what it really means to be in a waiting season. The questions, the doubts, the loneliness… and the quiet work God is doing beneath it all.

Having moments of unbelief doesn’t disqualify you—but settling there will. This is your invitation to grow your faith, to train your spirit, and to lean into who God is forming you to be.

Because waiting isn’t wasted.
It’s where God builds you.

Transcript

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Hi and welcome back to yet another episode. This is The Bloomers Journal, and I'm your host, Nondu Khadeve. You ever had a promise from God and had to wait on him? You ever been in his presence and had to wait on him? You ever waited for a breakthrough, an answer, waited for things to make sense? Yeah, that space right there, the waiting, can feel confusing, frustrating, even lonely. But there's something about the waiting that stretches you, that tests you. I'm convinced that there's more in the process of waiting than we recognize. What if God is doing his deepest work right there? Your ability to wait. Let's talk about it. Many of us can relate to the feelings associated with waiting. Being in the waiting season, being in the waiting room. There's those periods of seeking clarity, you're wanting vision, you're wanting answers, you're asking questions, waiting for God to make things clear. Maybe you heard him in the past and now he's gone quiet. You're asking yourself, did I hear right? Or where is he now? There's sometimes periods of loneliness. Waiting seasons often mean you're outgrowing where you were but haven't yet stepped into what's next. That in-between space can feel lonely because there's no clear space to belong. Sometimes you're holding on to and next you can't fully explain. So then you're surrounded by people, but you feel alone in what you're carrying. Sometimes there's periods of growing weary and discouraged. Maybe you've been holding on to this promise for so long and you're just feeling that you're exhausted. Emotionally, psychologically, mentally, you are exhausted. Weeding can be hard, and that's exactly what excites me about it. The hard things are there to build us, they add depth to our journeys, making them richer. They build character and show us more of God and more of ourselves. I've been reading through the book of Hebrews, and what you see there is a call, an encouragement for us to deal with our unbelief, to grow in our faith. Then there's a list presented to us of the people who came before us who exemplified this well. If you have a look at the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, it reads Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. If you read further down from verse eleven it says By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise, for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And by faith, even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. Now hold on one second. If you turn back to Genesis, the memory I have was that Sarah is questioning how the word delivered to her would come to pass. Sarah is promised in the book of Genesis that she would be able to bear a child. And what I remember is just how much Sarah questions it. In fact, I think she even laughs. Now, if we actually have a look at it, um Genesis 18, verse nine, when the three men had visited Abraham and Sarah, it reads, They asked him, Where's your wife Sarah? This is Abraham that they're asking. He answered, Over there in the tent. Then one spoke up and said, I will return about this time next year when your wife Sarah will certainly have a son. Sarah overheard it, for she was at the tent door not far behind him. Now both Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. Sarah laughed to herself with disbelief, saying, A woman my age have a baby. After I'm worn out will I now enjoy marital bliss and conceive, and with my aged husband? It says here, Yahweh knew her thoughts and asked Abraham, Why is Sarah laughing, saying, How can a woman my age have a baby? Do you think there is anything too marvelous for Yahweh? I know in another translation it says, Is anything too hard for God or for the Lord? It then continues and says, I'll appear to you at the point of time next year and Sarah will have a son. Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, I wasn't laughing. But he said, Yes, you were. So Sarah had a real chuckle. Sarah had a real chuckle about it. She did not believe this word. It seemed far-fetched, it seemed like a complete stretch. And I like this translation because Sarah didn't have to laugh out loud. She didn't have to confess her disbelief out loud. It says here that the Lord knew her thoughts. She didn't understand how this could happen, especially after all this time, especially given her age. She desired it, but she didn't see how it could come to pass. And what I love the most about this is that all of this did not disqualify her from being a woman of faith. There's a space and grace for the confusion. We are humans, we're functioning under a God of the impossible, a kingdom of the supernatural. So sometimes you do need an opportunity to align the two. But the questions is not where it ends. The disbelief is not where it ends. How do we move from a place of unbelief? The Bible speaks about us training ourselves to be godly. Faith is a form of godliness, right? The word here is training. We can actually train ourselves. And what does this look like? For me, it can be literally holding on to this word that we just read that asks, is there anything too hard for the Lord? Just stay there, meditating on that word. Is anything too hard for God? Not putting my focus on the situation at hand, not putting the focus on my need, not putting the focus on the promise itself, but shifting the focus to the God, right? The God who gives the promise. Is there anything too hard for Him? This is a word that I believe, right? So using that as a way to actually train and grow my faith, right? Regurgitating the word also helps, especially when you're feeling discouraged, especially when you're faced with doubt. You read, um, you read over and over again where the Lord has said he will do what he has promised, where the Lord has said not to worry about these things as the pagans do, where he he says and he shares uh the plans that he has for you. Another way is minding my speech. That one is a really good one. If God has said one thing, even if I don't see it as yet, why would I go and speak against it? Why would I go and speak a thing that is not what he has said, even if I don't yet believe it, if I'm going to utter anything about it, it's going to be what the Lord has said about it. The last one, which I really, really love, is while you wait, who do you become? In your waiting season, who do you become? There is an opportunity for you to become as you wait. As you wait for resources, you can look at the resources you have right now. How can you be an individual who stewards resources well? As you pray for family, as I pray for to be a wife one day, how can I become, do I have an opportunity to become that woman already? In my workspace, as I wait to be an executive, a director one day, do I have the opportunity today to grow in my leadership? I don't need to be CEO today, to already walk in that, to already exercise that, to already build the muscles required for that. Do I have an opportunity today to lead well? And I think sometimes we look at these things um and they feel big or they feel like things that are done on you know big stages. It's the places that we overlook where we can actually sometimes really grow in leadership, where you can grow in character, where you can become see waiting grows your perseverance, waiting grows your ability to keep going despite not having any evidence. You go, you go, you grow wary, you pick yourself up and you go, and so it goes. Waiting deepens your trust in God. Waiting stabilizes you as a person, you become the no wind, no rain, yet the valley will be filled. You don't panic at the lack of evidence, it doesn't destabilize you, right? Because you are holding on to the word, you are standing firm on that word. Your waiting can build you if you let it, it will build you. One of the things I've been waiting for in my life is promotion at work. We've had a promotion cycle in the past month, to which I was hoping it would be my turn. After a period of pouring all I had into work and getting to a place of many milestones, I thought it made sense. To add to that, you know, we go through praying and sea time in January. This was one of those things I had laid at the altar and had a crazy faith for. To me, this was signed and sealed, no questions. Promo season came and my promotion did not go through. Can you imagine what a plot twist that was for me? You can imagine the confusion and questioning of God that is, because everything is under him. But what would happen if I would consider who I'm becoming in the waiting? What I'm actually waiting for is not a title change. It's unondumi, so growing in her skills and expertise, is her growing as a leader, growing in my ability to think strategically, to be a thought leader and more. This woman needs to be built. And the Lord is doing exactly that. Absence of promotion is not absence of growth and development. Right now I have the opportunity to grow stronger and deeper. He's telling me to wait and to wait, I will. In all your waiting, think of who you can become. Lastly, don't get tired of waiting, especially on God or in his presence, because that is the one thing that will never be in vain. It's one of those things that when you look back, you will know for sure that it is not all wasted. There's so many examples in the Bible of people who waited and they waited for long. They waited for 40 days and 40 nights. Others waited, like your Sarah and Abraham. We had a look at earlier, they waited for years. They waited for years just for Sarah to conceive her first child. She was of old age, that is how long she had waited. And there's so many other things along the way that they waited for, which then built their character, brought them closer to the Lord, grew their trust in God. Um, it grows us quite deeply. It builds us up in our faith. We become winners in that we don't throw the towel in. When you feel yourself getting tired, have a system for yourself, whether that is community, people who can speak life into you, whether it is specific scripture that you have set aside for times like these where you are doubting the word that you once received, all the promises you have received, all the things you have prayed for, keep a journal, have it written in there so that you remember. Whenever you feel the strong confidence, the strong faith of it, write it down so that in those times where you're faced with the doubt, you go back to the word that you wrote when you were sure and you had the clarity of the promise coming to pass. Waiting is a skill and it's a muscle that we can build. So as we close, I just want to say don't be discouraged by the waiting. Be assured that the Lord is building your inner infrastructure and he's building you to go far. Wait well, don't sit idle while you wait to partner with God. Open up your heart and know that his word is yes and amen. See you next week.