Praying Through the Wait When Heaven Seems Quiet

Most of us can pray a quick prayer. We know how to ask, and we know how to give thanks when the answer comes. The hard part is the middle: the weeks and months, sometimes years, when you have asked and asked and the situation looks exactly the same. If that is where you are today, this is for you.

Waiting is one of the most common experiences in the Bible, and one of the least discussed from the pulpit. Abraham waited. Hannah waited. The psalmists wrote whole songs from the waiting room. If you are waiting, you are not behind. You are standing in a very old line of faithful people.

Waiting is not wasted

The prophet Isaiah gives one of the best-known promises about waiting: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31). Notice what the promise is about. It is not that the wait gets shorter. It is that strength is renewed during it.

That changes how we see the delay. The wait is not an empty hallway between the asking and the answer. God is doing something in the person who waits, whether or not he is yet doing something in the circumstance.

When the answer tarries

Habakkuk lived in a time of trouble, and he was told to hold on to what God had spoken: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry" (Habakkuk 2:3). There is a kind of honesty in that verse. It admits that the vision may tarry. It does not scold the one who is tired of waiting. It simply says to wait, because the appointed time is real.

Paul says something close to this in Romans 8:25, that when we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it with patience. Patience in Scripture is not passive. It is active trust, carried one day at a time.

Keep asking

Jesus told a story to make a point about this. In Luke 18:1-8, a widow keeps coming to an unjust judge until he finally gives her justice. Luke tells us plainly why Jesus told the parable: that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. The point is not that God is a reluctant judge who gives in to nagging. The point is the opposite. If persistence moves even an unjust judge, how much more will a loving Father respond to his children who keep coming to him?

Persistence does not mean repeating the same words until they lose meaning. It means returning, again and again, with honesty. Some days your prayer will be a loud declaration. Other days it will be a single sentence: "Lord, I'm still here." Both count.

What to do while you wait

Waiting goes better with a few simple practices. None of them are complicated, and each one keeps your heart soft while the situation stays unchanged.

• Tell the truth about how you feel. God can handle your frustration, your questions and your tears. The Psalms are full of them.
• Keep a record. Write down your request and the date, so you can see later how God moved.
• Pray with someone. James writes that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16), and it is easier to stay fervent beside a friend.
• Serve somebody else. A waiting season is a good time to be the answer to another person's prayer.
• Speak the promise out loud. Say the verses that hold you, even on the days you don't feel them.

Be of good courage

David knew the weight of a long wait. He ended one of his psalms with an instruction to himself and to us: "Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD" (Psalm 27:14). He says it twice, as if he knew how easily the heart drifts. Courage is not the feeling that the wait is easy. It is the decision to keep trusting while it isn't.

Apostle Daryl Johnson has written a book on this very theme, "The Weight And The Wait Of Prayer," available in the Winning In Prayer TV store for $39.99. If the subject speaks to where you are, you can find it at /store.

You are not alone in it

One of the hardest parts of waiting is the loneliness, the feeling that everyone else has received their answer while you keep praying. You do not have to carry that by yourself. You can join the live prayer on the Watch Live page at /watch-live, or call (941) 462-2504 and ask for someone to pray with you. The team at Winning In Prayer TV offers spiritual guidance and real conversations, and the Johnsons would be glad to hear from you. Hold on a little longer. The God who promised is faithful, and your waiting is being watched over.