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By Heather Logan

Do you ever doubt God’s goodness when God’s timing doesn’t make sense? 

God is a good God who hears our prayers. He cares about the things on our hearts and our pain, and yet still some prayers go seemingly unanswered. We cannot understand what is going on behind the scenes when we haven’t heard from the Lord and haven’t seen the fulfillment of our broken prayers. 

It can be a challenging test of trust, patience and faith to wait upon the Lord for the things about which we have prayed. 

“Why isn’t he answering?” 

“Have I missed his voice?”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Does God even care?”

These are all questions we can wonder about in seasons of waiting. They can quickly bring about doubt, fear, confusion and frustration. It is what we do in the waiting and the perspective we choose that makes all the difference. 

We see only in part, but God sees the whole.

My view of God and my circumstances are often so small. I may think I know what is best and needed and yet I can never see the full picture of God’s plan no matter how hard I try. 

If we imagine life as a giant puzzle, it’s as though God has seen the entire puzzle finished and put together. I am holding a single piece trying to figure out where it may go. Not only that, but I don’t have the box to tell me how it’s all going to look and what the puzzle will display when finished. 

He understands the things that will come from our pain. He knows how he will use it and he wastes nothing. He wants to be glorified in everything, and this life isn’t meant to be about our happiness but about glorifying God. 

As I hold my puzzle piece trying to figure out where it should go, God seems to gently whisper, “Give it to me, I know where to put it.” Still, I strive to figure out what God is doing and ask for answers. 

I become impatient and frustrated that he does not seem to be moving on my behalf and or hearing my desperate plea. Quickly forgetting that all along he is at work behind the scenes and has a far greater purpose than I could imagine, I just can’t see it. 

Keep persevering with faithfulness, as it makes all the difference.

I love how Paul put it when he said in Galatians 6:9 NIV, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” 

It’s easy to want to give up hope when it’s been months or years of unanswered prayers. Yet, God’s Word is clear that as you continue to be faithful in what he has put before you today, you will reap a harvest at the proper time if you do not give up. 

Life will always have challenges. Yet God is far more concerned with making us more like Jesus than making us happy and comfortable. You can trust that your momentary troubles and difficulties are creating in you something far greater than you could ever comprehend, and that your perseverance makes a difference. 

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:17 NIV

Look in the Bible to encourage your heart in the waiting.

Joseph, Abraham, Moses, and David are just a few of the examples you can look to in God’s Word to remind you of the hope you have in the waiting. These men had to wait many years for the fulfillment of God’s promises and some of them never saw the completion in their lifetime. 

They endured many hardships and moments that seemed exactly the opposite of what God had promised to them, but God was faithful to those promises. Still today, God is working out the completion of those promises. 

Be encouraged today! You are in good company when the waiting seems eternal. God is faithful. You can trust his plans are far greater than anything you could imagine, even when God’s timing doesn’t make sense.

Wife Step: Look back to see God’s faithfulness when you begin to doubt. 

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