16. 5 Signs God Is Preparing You for Something (Even When Nothing Is Moving)

5 signs God is preparing you for something, even when life feels quiet and nothing seems to be moving.

Like, follow, and subscribe ➡ https://www.youtube.com/@PrettyDeepPodcast

If you’ve been feeling stuck, restless, aimless, or like your life is standing still, this episode is for you. Today we’re talking about 5 signs God is preparing you for something, even when nothing on the outside appears to be changing. 

From unexplained unrest to hard obedience, quiet transformation, and discovering who you are in Him, this conversation will help you recognise God’s hand in your waiting season. 

You are not behind, forgotten, or stagnant. God may be doing some of His deepest work in the ordinary.

In this video, you’ll learn:
 • Why holy unrest can be a sign God is stirring something new
 • How hard obedience can prepare you for what’s next
 • Why God may be teaching you things that feel pointless right now
 • How quiet inner transformation reveals God’s work in you
 • Why your identity in Christ matters in every waiting season

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 — Is this really all there is?
02:35 — The season that changed everything
05:34 — Sign 1: That restlessness you feel
07:34 — Sign 2: The hard and brave ask
12:16 — Sign 3: Nothing feels pointless
16:24 — Sign 4: Something is shifting inside you
19:14 — Sign 5: Discovering who you actually are

This episode is part of 'The God You Didn't Know': a season of honest conversations about the misunderstandings about God that quietly shape our confidence, identity, and peace. 

Watch the full series here  ➡️  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuIjdmA2_b_OmBO6i6_R8hEsJrkRSXsGz

FREE product mentioned in this video:
 • 5 Scriptures for Your Waiting Season - [Add download link]

Subscribe to Pretty Deep Podcast:
 https://www.youtube.com/@PrettyDeepPodcast

Connect with me!
 • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PrettyDeepPodcast
• Instagram: @PetrinaVerma

Question - Which of the five signs resonated most with you today: unrest, hard obedience, learning in the ordinary, inner transformation, or discovering who you are in Him?

Disclaimer: This video is not sponsored. There are no affiliate links included.

#GodIsPreparingYou #WaitingSeason #ChristianWomen #FaithEncouragement #PrettyDeepPodcast

About:
 Welcome to Pretty Deep Podcast with Petrina Verma — a space for women who are done striving and ready to see God, and themselves, clearly. Here we talk honestly about faith, identity, purpose, healing, obedience, and the quiet seasons where God does His deepest work.

DISCLAIMER: This video is for faith-based encouragement and personal reflection. It is not sponsored and does not include affiliate links. Any resources mentioned are shared to support your spiritual growth and help you stay anchored in God’s Word during your waiting season.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're doing everything right. You're praying, you're showing up, you're being faithful, and yet something feels off. Not dramatically wrong. Nothing you could point to and say, That is the problem. Nothing has fallen apart, nothing is in crisis. Just this quiet, persistent sense that your life is standing still. You look around at other women, women who seem to have momentum, who seem to know where they're going, who seem to have a sense of direction and purpose, and you wonder, what do they have that I don't? Maybe you're doing the mum thing, running the home, showing up to the job that pays the bills, but doesn't light you up. Managing everyone's schedules, everyone's moods, everyone's needs. And you're doing it, you're showing up every single day, but somewhere underneath all of it, underneath the school runs and the grocery lists and the to-do list that never actually ends, there's this quiet, uncomfortable question that just won't go away. Is this it? Is this all there is? Was I actually made for something more than this? And maybe if you're really honest, you feel a little aimless, a little purposeless, like you're waiting for your real life to begin. And you have no idea when that's going to happen, or if it's ever going to happen, or whether you've somehow already missed it. Can I say something to you? That feeling, that restlessness, the ache, or that sense that something needs to change, but you don't know what, it's not a sign that something is wrong with you. It might actually be a sign that God is at work. Stay with me, because today we're going to talk about five signs that God is preparing you for something. Even when absolutely nothing appears to be moving. Hi, I'm Petrina and this is Pretty Deep, the podcast for women who are done striding and ready to see God and themselves clearly. Let's get into it. I want to tell you something personal before we get into the five signs, because I have been exactly where you are. A number of years ago, one of my best friends passed away. She was like a sister to me, and she was here one day, and within weeks, she was gone. The grief was unlike anything I have ever experienced. But what it also did was it shook me awake. Because when you lose someone that close, someone that young, you stop taking things for granted. You stop taking for granted that tomorrow is promised. And I found myself asking questions that I had never really asked before. What am I here for? What am I leaving behind? If I went home to be with Jesus tomorrow, would I have done anything of significance with this one life that he gave me? And I didn't have the answers. So what did I do? I cried, I journaled, I prayed, I got into the word and I stayed there. I sought God with everything I had and I asked him to show me. From the outside, it looked like nothing was happening. There was no clarity yet on what was next. There was no big announcements, no visible change, and no obvious signs of any progress. I was just a woman at her desk with her Bible and her journal, crying her eyes out and asking God what on earth she was doing with her life. But here's what I know now that I could not see back then. God was doing the most significant work of my life in that season. He was transforming my mind. He was reshaping my understanding of purpose. God was showing me that it's not one fixed destination, but that instead it is something that shifts and grows in every season of your life. God was teaching me who I was in him. He was showing me through scripture, through a quiet witness on the inside of me, how immense his love for me was. And out of that season came photography. Out of that season came a business that I built around encouraging women. Out of that season came skills I never thought I could learn, and a confidence that I never had before. Out of that season came this podcast. But I couldn't see any of that while I was in it. And if you are in a quiet season right now and if it feels like nothing is moving, I want to give you something today. I want to give you five signs that God is at work in you, even when you cannot see a single thing happening. Because you know what? He absolutely is. God is working, he has you, and he is preparing you for something. Let's talk about what that looks like. Sign number one. You feel an unrest that you cannot explain. There's a restlessness in you, a dissatisfaction with where things are, a stirring, quiet but persistent, that something needs to change. That there is something more that you are made for, something that you've not stepped into yet. And maybe you've been treating that feeling like it's the enemy talking, like something you need to push down, like something you need to be ashamed of. I should just be grateful. I have such a good life. Why can't I just be content? Can I reframe that for you? Not all unrest is the enemy talking. In Christ, that stirring, that restlessness, that holy dissatisfaction, that can actually be a sign that something is growing, that God is leading you into something new, that the Holy Spirit is creating a desire in you before you even understand what that desire is for. Here's something I believe deeply. Anything that is good in us, any desire to grow, to change, to seek God, to be more, it comes from the Holy Spirit. The Bible says in Philippians 2.13, it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. God is working in you to will, to desire, to want. The desire itself is the sign. So if there is a stirring in you that you can't explain, don't silence it. Pay attention to it. Bring it to God and say, Lord, what is this? What are you doing? What are you preparing me for? Because that unrest, that holy dissatisfaction, it might just be the first sign that something significant is on its way. Sign number two, you're being asked to do something hard and brave. Preparation never looks like comfort. Let me say that again. Preparation never looks like comfort. It looks like being asked to forgive someone who never said sorry. It looks like stepping far outside your comfort zone. It looks like doing brave, bold things before you ever feel brave and bold. I remember when God was nudging me towards my photography business. I knew nothing about photography. Well, almost nothing. I had to learn to use this fancy camera that I had from scratch. I had to learn how to light a shot. I had to learn how to use studio equipment. I had to learn how to pose my clients. I had to learn how to run a business, to market, to sell. And one of the things I had to do very early on was build a portfolio of work so I could show people what I was capable of. Now, you run out of family members to photograph very quickly. Very, very quickly. So I had to start asking strangers, which meant that if I was in the grocery store and I saw someone who looked interesting to me, I had to walk up to them, to a complete stranger, and politely ask if I could photograph them. And let me tell you, that doesn't always meet with smiles. Some people look at you like you have two heads. But I did it over and over again because I knew that this is what God had called me to in that season. And I was not going to let fear be louder than obedience. And then when my business launched, I had to make sales calls. I had to talk to people who had shown interest in my work. I had to say my prices out loud, which people sometimes thought was absolutely mad. Brave, bold steps that I honestly did not think I was capable of. And here's what I discovered, and I want you to hear this clearly. You don't discover what you're capable of before you do the brave thing. You discover it by doing the brave thing. Courage grows in obedience. And there was another area of hard obedience in that season. And this one was much more personal. God asked me to forgive someone. Someone who had hurt me deeply. Someone who had never said sorry. And man, did I push back hard. I literally had a conversation with God and said, Lord, I don't even know what that looks like. What is forgiveness? And why should I forgive this person? They hurt me. They never apologized. What does it even mean to forgive someone in this situation? If I forgive them, do I need to let them be part of my life? No, Lord, I don't want to. And God, because he is so kind and so patient and so generous, he didn't condemn me for pushing back. Gosh, I love him. Instead, he created in me a desire to understand. So I went searching. What does the Bible say about forgiveness? What does God actually mean when he asks this of me? And why does he ask it? How does it work? And as I searched, I found. As I found, I understood. And as I understood, I had no choice but to obey. Because my brain and my heart and my spirit all came into agreement with what the word was showing me. Listen, you cannot obey God and not be blessed. That's not me being naive. That is decades of walking with him and watching it be true over and over and over again. You cannot outgive God. You give him your obedience and he will pour out his blessing. In the moment though, it felt so hard. So, so hard. I didn't want to do it. I dug my heels in. I was deeply and stubbornly human about the whole thing. But then I obeyed anyway. And the fruit I've seen from that obedience, it has been endless. So if God is asking you to do something hard right now, to forgive someone, to make the brave phone call, to take the step you keep putting off, to show up outside of your comfort zone, that's not a sign that life is being unkind to you. That is a sign that you're being prepared. Obedience is not the obstacle to the blessing. Obedience is the path to it. Sign three. You are learning things that feel pointless right now. This is one of my favorite signs because it is the one that is hardest to see while you're in it. God teaches you what you will need before you actually need it. I learned to style photo shoots years before I ever held a camera. I had no idea at the time that I would one day run a portrait studio. I was doing my job on the editorial team of a design magazine and I would watch the photographers, learning little bits here and there. It felt random at the moment. It felt ordinary. But looking back, God was building something. God was planting seeds that I couldn't see the purpose of yet. And maybe you're doing the same thing right now in a season that feels ordinary, maybe even invisible. Maybe you're surviving a hard season of parenting teenagers. Do I know this season? On some hard days when my kids were driving me insane, I remember sitting there and thinking, this is so unfair. I did the hard work of growing up and I learned to submit to and obey my parents. Surely now it's their turn? But here is what I've come to understand. Yes, God is working on my children. But more, God is working on me. He's teaching me how to love when it's hard, how to respond without anger, when everything in me wants to react, how to hold hope, real stubborn, God-given hope. On the days when my children are making decisions I don't agree with, when they're being disrespectful, when the gap between where I hoped they'd be and where they actually are is heartbreakingly wide. In that season of parenting, in the frustration, the fear, the love, the helplessness, God is teaching you something. You just can't see what it's for yet. Maybe you're sitting in a job that feels too small, a job that doesn't feel significant enough, a job where you feel like your potential is being wasted. Despise not the day of small beginnings. Because God sees your beginning from your end. You can't see five steps ahead, but God sees your whole story from the very beginning to the very end. And God is using this season, this little invisible season, to build something in you that the next chapter is going to need. Maybe he's teaching you patience. Maybe he's teaching you diligence, how to do excellent work when no one is watching and when the work doesn't feel satisfying. Maybe God is teaching you contentment. Maybe he's building a skill, a relationship, a character quality that makes absolutely no sense to you right now, but will be exactly what you need later. And maybe you're running a home that feels unremarkable. Just the meals, the washing, the appointments, the conversations, the holding it all together. And on some days it feels like it adds up to nothing. But let me tell you what it actually adds up to. It is your small, faithful presence, your patience, your kindness, your consistency that makes your home a place of safety and peace for your children. They may not tell you that. They may not even know it yet, but it's happening every single day. And that is not nothing. It is everything. God is not wasting a single moment of your ordinary. God is using all of it, the frustration, the invisibility, the smallness, all to prepare you for what comes next. You just can't see it from where you're standing right now, but he can. Sign 4. Your inner world is quietly shifting. This is the invisible sign. Another hard one to see while you're in it. Because nothing on the outside has changed. The circumstances look the same. Life looks the same. Your calendar looks the same. But something inside you is different. And here's how you know. Bible verses that used to feel flat, like words on a page that you'd read a hundred times, suddenly they land differently. They go deeper than they used to. Something opens up inside of you when you read them. You find yourself thinking about God in the middle of ordinary moments, while you're doing the dishes, while you're driving the kids somewhere, while you're folding laundry, and you invite him in. You ask for his opinion. You talk to him like he's there. Because you know what? He is. Old thought patterns, you know, comparison, worthlessness, fear, shame, they all start to feel less true. They come back because they always come back, but they don't grip you the way they used to before. Something has loosened. And this one, you find yourself loving people who used to drain you. You're more patient with people who used to irritate you, and you feel more generous towards those who have hurt you. I can tell you, none of this you can manufacture. Because it's not willpower, it's not positive thinking, and it's not you trying harder. This is the transformation that Romans 12, 2 talks about. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That is what is happening in the quiet, in the ordinary, in the season that looks like nothing. Your mind is being renewed. And here is the most beautiful part of this sign. And the thing that I want you to really sit with. This transformation doesn't come from discipline alone. It doesn't come from reading more or doing more or being more. It comes from falling in love with God. Because the more you are with him in his word, the more you see who he actually is. You see his character, his kindness, his patience, his faithfulness, his love. And as you see him more clearly, you begin to love him more deeply. And from that place, you know, that place of love and admiration and reverence comes a desire to obey him. Not out of fear, not out of duty, but purely out of love for him. That shift from obedience as a burden to obedience as a love response, that is one of the most profound signs that God is doing something in you. Don't miss it. Sign five. You are discovering who you are in him. This is the deepest sign and the most important one. And I want to be really honest with you about how this works. Because I think there's a version of this that we often get wrong. I wish I could tell you that for me, there was one single moment where all this clicked, where I woke up and I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, exactly who I was, exactly what I was worth, exactly what I was called to. But that is not how it happened for me. And I suspect that it's not how it happens for most women. There are days, even now, where something happens and I feel sorry for myself. And I forget everything I know, everything God has taught me. And I sit there going, Who am I? What have I actually done with my life? What do I have of significance to show for any of this? I'm just a mum. I'm just fumbling through this. And the comparison creeps in. I look at where my kids are and where I hoped they'd be. I look at what I've built and what I imagined I'd build. And for a moment, it all feels like not enough. I know that I'm not alone in this. The just a mum feeling, the just running my home feeling, the what do I have of significance to show for my life feeling. So many women live in that gap between knowing the truth and actually feeling it. My brain knows that the patience, the kindness, the love that I pour into my children has eternal dividends. My soul knows that God has given me the privilege of shaping their lives. I know it. But knowing it and internalizing it, you know, believing it in your bones, that's a different thing entirely. And here's what I've learned about identity. It's not a destination you arrive at. It is a choice you make every single day. You will forget, and then you'll return to the word, and God will remind you, and you'll forget again, and you'll return again, and he'll remind you again. That is not a sign of weakness. That is what it looks like to be a human being who's walking daily with God. Because here's what the word says about you. It says you are fearfully and wonderfully made in Psalm 139. It says you are the apple of God's eye in Zechariah 2 8. It says that God knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb in Jeremiah 1. It says that God has plans for you, plans for a future and a hope in Jeremiah 29. And it says that if He calls you to something, he will equip you for it in Hebrews 13. And this is the thing that has carried me through every quiet season. If he calls me to it, he will equip me for it. I do not need to have it all figured out before I begin. I do not need to feel ready. I do not need to have all the skills, all the confidence, all the answers. If God has asked me to do it, he will give me everything I need to do it. And if God thinks you're important, and believe me, He does, then you must be. Please hear that again. If God thinks you're important, and He does, then you must be. Not because of what you've achieved, not because of how consistent you've been, not because you have all your ducks in a row and together, but because of who God is and because of whose you are. That is the discovery that changes everything. Not a single moment, a daily returning to God, to his word, to the truth of who he says you are. Every time you return, it becomes a little more solid, a little more real, a little more like the ground that you stand on. So let me bring this all together. If you're in a quiet season right now and it appears like nothing is moving and life feels more ordinary than significant, and if you're wondering whether your prayers are reaching anyone, I want you to hear this. You are not behind, you're not stagnant, you're not forgotten, you're being prepared. God is working in the waiting, and he is working in the ordinary. He is working in the season that looks like nothing from outside. God is transforming your mind, he is building your capacity, he is growing your character, and he is teaching you the things you will need, even though you can't yet see what they are and what they are for. Small beginnings are not small to God. Despise not the day of small beginnings. God sees your beginning from your end and he knows exactly what he's building. He knows exactly what he's preparing for you. He knows exactly what he's preparing you for. And God is not in a hurry because he's not making something rushed. God is making something lasting. Whatever season God is calling you into next, he has you. He's equipping you for it right now, in the ordinary, in the waiting, in what looks like nothing. And he will give you everything you need to do exactly what he's calling you to. So here is the one thing I want to ask you to do this week. Just one thing. Instead of asking God when, ask him, Lord, what are you teaching me right now? And then get quiet enough to listen to what he says. Can I please pray with you? Father, for the woman listening to this right now, the one who's feeling invisible and aimless, Lord, like she's waiting for her real life to begin. Would you please speak to her heart today? Remind her, God, that you are not absent, that you are not silent, that you are at work in the quiet, in the ordinary, in the season that feels like nothing to her right now. Help her to recognize your hand in what she is walking through, Father. Give her eyes to see the signs. Give her the courage to keep obeying you even when it's hard. Give her hope, Lord, for what she cannot yet see. And remind her, Lord, gently, firmly, lovingly, that you have not forgotten her. Remind her that she is loved, she is chosen, she is the apple of your eye, that you have equipped her, and that, Lord, you think that she's important. Lord, I ask this all in the name of your precious Son Jesus. Amen. Now, before you go, I have something for you. I've put together a free resource called Five Scriptures for your waiting season. It's five verses from the Bible, one for each of the signs that we've talked about today, that you can put on your phone, your fridge, your mirror, wherever you need to see them, as a daily reminder that God is at work, even when you cannot see or feel it. You can grab that in the link below. It's completely free. And I really believe it's going to help you anchor in this season. And if this episode spoke to you, if something landed today that you needed to hear, I would love for you to share it. Think about the women in your life right now who are in a quiet season or feeling stuck and wondering if they've been forgotten by God. Send it to them. You never know how much one conversation shared at the right moment can change someone's week or their whole season. I'd love if you leave me a comment and tell me which of the five signs resonated most with you today. I always read every single comment and I genuinely love to hear from you. If you're not subscribed yet, please do. It truly helps other women find these conversations. Now, next week we're going to talk about something really important. We're going to talk about purpose. Not the big, overwhelming, what is my life calling kind of purpose, but the everyday practical and deeply personal kind. The kind that is already right there in your hands, even if you can't see it yet. That's coming next week. I can't wait. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today. You don't know how much it means to me. You are not alone in this season, and you're doing so much better than you think. So much love. See you next week.