waiting on god Archives - Daily Thoughts about God

I’m convinced that emotions can wreck us. On any given day, I can go from laughing to crying; feeling angry to craving connection; feeling hopeful to feeling desperate. Emotions take us all over the place, use up what little energy we have, and leave us feeling spent.

Truth can get lost in emotions…if we let it.

For a while now, I’ve felt like God has been silent. I know He’s with me. I know He hears me, sees me, and knows every detail of my days. I know that. But, sometimes I don’t feel it.

As I pray, I’ve been reminding myself that the truth and how I feel are not the same.

In my frustration, I want to demand, God, where are You?!?

Instead, I’ve been confessing, Lord, I know You’re here, but I feel like I can’t find you. Why am I struggling to connect with You?

One expresses my anger, the other cries out for help. God knows I feel both.

Anger clouds my vision and opens the door even wider for doubt and suspicion. (Both of which are in the enemy’s arsenal.) But, expressing my need for Him keeps me looking for Him, watching for even the smallest reminder that He’s with me. It keeps me expecting to see Him.

I imagine I’m not alone in struggling between truth and emotions. Fortunately, God’s Word is filled with His truth to remind us He’s with us, even when it feels like God is silent.

Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Isaiah 43:2 (VOICE)
When you face stormy seas I will be there with you with endurance and calm; you will not be engulfed in raging rivers. If it seems like you’re walking through fire with flames licking at your limbs, keep going; you won’t be burned.

Psalm 62:5-6 (NLT)
Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.

Psalm 34:17-18 (NLT)
The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

Psalm 73:26 (NLT)
My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.

Isaiah 41:10 (MSG)
Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.

Exodus 33:14 (NIV)
The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Deuteronomy 31:8 (NLT)
Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

Joshua 1:9 (NLT)
This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Ephesians 3:16-17 (NLT)
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

John 14:16-17 (NKJV)
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

Psalm 5:3 (NIV)
In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.

Psalm 63:8 (VOICE)
My soul clings to You; Your right hand reaches down and holds me up.

Romans 8:38-39 (NLT)
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What verses do you turn to when you’re struggling to feel God with you?

By Laura Rath
Used by Permission

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What do we do when God seems slow?

Let’s face it. Waiting is hard. The good news is it is not up to us. The Holy Spirit enables us to wait. Galatians 5:5 “Through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.” Through the Spirit by faith… that means we get the opportunity to draw nearer the Holy Spirit while we wait for God to work our miracle(s) of righteousness. That puts my focus where it should be… on Him, not myself or others. It is usually stubborn family situations that get to me, of course, for they have been going on the longest and require the most patient endurance in the midst of waiting. Waiting is an invitation to stillness.

A faithful brother added this insight to the subject of waiting on God: “The Hebrew word ‘qavah,’ which is translated ‘wait‘ in Isaiah 40:31, means ‘to bind together like a cord.’ As we wait on the Lord in stillness before Him with our hearts in a quiet state, it is like adding strands to a rope to strengthen it. Picture the process of making a rope by twisting or weaving (binding) thin cords together to form the rope. The more strands that are twisted or woven together in a rope, the greater its strength. We can assume that the more we are still to listen to God, the stronger we become. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says ‘… a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.’

“As we wait, we can choose to soak in the Lord Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. David wrote that he had “quieted his soul like a weaned child on his mother’s breast.” God speaks to our spirits, and our ears are trained to hear His voice (Isaiah 50:4). The mind wants to “ go go go,” but God says this is serious error (Isaiah 30). Our noisy souls must be told to be quiet and submit to our spirits and to God’s Spirit. In this age of incessant cell phones, texting, Internet, and TV, we have to choose to be intentional to wait to hear God’s still small voice.”

What is God trying to say to you about who He is and who you are in Him during this time of waiting?

Two Scriptural examples of people who did not wait on God show us the disastrous consequences of not waiting. God took the kingdom from Saul because of his impatience (1 Samuel 13:8-14). When God’s people forgot Him and did not wait for His counsel, He sent upon them wasting disease or leanness of soul (Psalms 106:13,15). You are probably painfully aware of times when you did not seek God’s counsel and ran ahead of Him. You have repented of these and asked God’s forgiveness. Ask Him to encourage you when you are impatient with waiting for the answer to prayer that you have desired the longest. Ask Him to give you grace to keep your hope fixed in the God-of-the-impossible.

By Sylvia Gunter

Used by Permission
From: Waiting on God, see Prayer Essentials For Living In His Presence,
Vol 2, page 277-280. © Sylvia Gunter 2000

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14 Verses for when it Feels Like God is Silent

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