Raise your hand if you’ve ever waited for something and gotten bored or discouraged while you waited. *Raises hand.*
Waiting can be hard and confusing. So many thoughts flood your mind. “Am I doing it right?” “Is it meant to take this long?” “Will my promise ever come?”
These are things that we all face when we have to wait, but there’s a better way.
The Bible says,
Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!
Psalm 27:14
The Hebrew word for “wait” in this verse is qāvâ (pronounced kaw-vaw’), which means to eagerly wait for or expect something. David encourages us to be eager as we wait for the Lord to fulfil His promises to us.
And it’s great advice, but what does that look like today? In a world so fast-paced, noisy, and broken, how do we wait with hope?
How to Wait With Hope
If you want to wait with hope, you have to slow down. To do that, you need to wait well.
And waiting well means knowing how to WAIT, so let’s talk about it.
WAIT
Worship
Accept
Incubate
Trust
What does that mean for you and me?
I’ve got some thoughts on that. Let’s dive in.
1. Worship
Worship the Lord for who He is, not just for what He’s done or is doing in your life. Painful circumstances dry up your worship real quick if your praise is circumstantial instead of unconditional.
God is unchanging. The same reason you have to praise Him when you’re swinging from the rafters, is the same reason you have to praise Him when life is a mess and you feel like you’re rolling in the gutter.
Worshipping while you wait helps you to wait well. When I worship the Lord my God no matter what’s going on around or in me, I honour Him for who He is to me, not what He does for me.
Deep worship will do what all the worrying and strategising in the world cannot: give me peace and joy in my Father’s arms.
2. Accept
Accept God’s promises for you. Accept His will, His way, and His timing. To accept the Lord’s promises is to be strong in faith like Abraham (Romans 4) and see beyond the natural.
When I accept God’s promises, I’m not moved by what I see because I believe what He sees.
I’m not moved by what I see in the natural because I believe what He sees in the supernatural.
I believe the Lord’s unlimited sight over my limited sight. Accepting His promises for me allows me to rest in the knowledge that He has me and will perfect what He’s begun in me (Philippians 1:6).
Waiting well is about how I wait, not just if I wait.
3. Incubate
You have to incubate what the Lord has spoken over you and be intentional about it. Nurturing those precious promises means speaking life over them and being diligent as you prepare to receive them.
Take a pregnant woman, for instance. Even though she waits 9 months to give birth, she doesn’t just twiddle her thumbs the entire time. She takes antenatal classes so she knows how to breathe and push when the time comes. She gets her diet right so her body’s strong enough to stay healthy. She’s extra careful about everything because she’s carrying someone precious in her belly that she intends to birth.
When I intentionally incubate God’s promises for me, I’m protecting the spiritual pregnancy I carry in my belly. I may not have an exact timeframe of how or when I’ll give birth, but what matters is living like I know I’m pregnant, and feeding myself and my baby the right Spirit-filled nutrients.
And what does that look like? Praying, fasting, giving, worshipping, serving at church, and marinating myself in what Scripture says about my promises.
Speaking the Word over me will bring the Word to pass in me.
Did you catch that?
Speaking the Word over me will bring the Word to pass in me.
God’s promises are inseparable from His Word. If you stay in His Word and speak it over yourself again and again even when you don’t feel like it’s doing anything, the life in His Word will ignite His promises to you, and what He said will come to pass in your life.
Are there practical things you can do if you have a specific promise? Absolutely.
Learn to speak in public if He’s promised to send you to nations. Make time to write nearly every day if He’s promised you books, movies, or songs for His glory. Work on your character if He’s promised you a spouse.
Find whatever you can do to prep for it, yes, but the how is up to Him, not you. You just show up every day and let Holy Spirit fill you up as you read, worship, pray, and move. He’ll do the rest.
Don’t worry about it. Wait on it!
4. Trust
Trusting the Lord’s promise while I wait is putting all my confidence in Him.
All my confidence. Not a little, not some, not most, but all. His promises may not make sense to me or to anybody else, but if I’m accepting and incubating them, then I’m trusting Him to bring them to fruition.
God is the Source of power and I’m just a channel, so He has to give me the power to birth His promises in my life. The Lord quickened Sarah’s dead womb so she could birth Isaac (Genesis 21:1-7). He quickened Elizabeth’s dead womb so she could birth John the Baptist (Luke 1:57). He gave them the power to carry, protect, and birth their promises, and He’ll do the same for me if I trust in Him.
Trusting God while I wait even when it’s really hard shows whom I depend on and how tuned in I am to His presence. Trusting Him keeps me in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).
When you’re trusting God and His promises while you wait, you’re relying on Him. You’re thanking Him. You’re hoping on Him because He’s steadfast and eternal, and hope won’t make you ashamed.
Faith is trusting that the same God who calls things that aren’t as if they are, is the same God who’ll bring those things to pass in your life for His glory.
Because that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Receiving God’s promises in your life are for His glory, and the fulness of those promises will bring Him abundant glory, not just a little bit.
Waiting On the Lord Is Waiting With Hope
Why must we wait with hope to really wait on the Lord? Because even when the wait is hard, knowing how to WAIT draws us closer to Him and makes it more bearable.
Choosing to WAIT is to worship the Lord, accept His promises for you, incubate those promises, and trust Him to fulfil them.
Worship. Accept. Incubate. Trust.
What He has spoken over you is true for you, and as you WAIT on Him, He’ll surely perform what He has spoken.
Joy Is Coming In the Morning
Waiting for a long time takes a toll on anyone. We’re humans who’re easily bored, impatient, discouraged, and frenetic.
Yet we are also believers who serve a good God that keeps His promises because it’s impossible for Him to lie (Hebrews 6:18; Titus 1:2).
I don’t know how long you’ve been waiting for the blessing, the breakthrough, or the deliverance. I don’t know which dreams you’ve had to bury and which ones might be resurrected again. All I know is that God is faithful and true, and what He says works.
I haven’t always waited well. I don’t always remember to wait with hope. It’s easier to write about life than to practise life, and I think that’s kind of the point. We aren’t meant to be spectators, but victors.
So today, this is a reminder for you and me to hold on to our promises. To hold on to God. Don’t let the weight of what hasn’t come crush your joy, your peace, and your hope.
Because pain and delays come and go, but the love of God doesn’t. It stays. It abides. And we’re buoyed by that love as we WAIT, not as we fret.
In the end, nobody gets a prize for how discouraged or pessimistic they can be, but there is a crown for those who’re faithful and endure to the end. We receive our promises when we endure, not when we give up.
Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart”, because the strength comes from Him, not you.
It’s okay to feel weak, tired, or done. Just don’t let that feeling rob you of what’s to come when you endure.
So good 🔥🔥🔥
Heeey, my girl! Thank you so much! 🤗 Here’s to us waiting with hope!
Wow my dear Otiti, so deep. Really empowering and encouraging 🔥🔥do more and more❤️
Blessy! HI! Thank you so much. I’m encouraged. The Lord has a lot to teach us! I’m just honoured to be able to share like this. 😊
Hey Baby Girl, this is so motivating and full of comforting insights. I can’t decide which bits I liked best. So I’ll pick 2 of the ones that blessed me. ….. ‘When I accept God’s promises, I’m not moved by what I see because I believe what He sees.’
And ….. ‘Speaking the Word over me will bring the Word to pass in me.’
I thank you x 1000, and as many hugs.💐💐✨️✨️❤️❤️
Hiiiii, Mama! Good to see you! 😁
Thank you for reading. I thank God that this post blessed you! It’s also a timely reminder for me to quit being gnarly and come out of my “feelings”, LOL.
Waiting on it! And as I WAIT, I praise. In Jesus’s Name 🕊
Hi dear Sister, I loved reading your post. So good and full of valuable information. May the Lord continues to bless you and shine his light on you. Looking forward to read more of this.
Hi, Annie! Thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I look forward to releasing more by His grace. 🙏🏾🙏🏾 I pray that we’re all able to wait better and not grow weary!