Have you ever asked yourself, “How long will I be in this debt?” or, “How long will I have to wait on someone else?” or even, “How long until God answers my prayer?” Sometimes waiting can feel like bondage. You can’t change time, make it go faster, or slow it down. It’s just there. And no matter what, you have to stay on time’s timetable.
After high school, I didn’t go to college right away, whereas all of my other friends did. I stayed home, got a full-time job, found my own church, as the church I was going to was no longer meeting, made new friends, and started my adult life. When I turned 21, God called me back to school. Where I had been living on my own schedule, in the comfort of my own space, I moved into a dorm where everyone was three or four years younger than me.
I’ve always desired a family and at 22, yes, I was still young, I desired so strongly to be a wife. However, I just moved hours away from everyone I knew and was put in a building of people who just graduated high school. My friends who went to college out of high school were all engaged and getting ready to get married that May after they graduated college. I remember journaling and crying out to God, “How long will I be behind everyone else? How long will I watch my friends flourish? How long will I have to wait until my husband comes around?”
In Psalm 13, David starts by asking, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1 ESV)
But what he says at the end of Psalm 13 is what captured my attention. He says, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.” (Psalm 13:5-6)
David also asked “how long” questions. I believe we are stuck by what the clock or calendar says, but not very often do we do what David did. Three months after I prayed that prayer, I finally gave it to God. I believed that He gave me the desire and that I would have to trust Him to bring it forth. No matter the time bubble I was in, He was above time. He knew exactly four months after that prayer I would meet a man who loved the Lord with all his heart, and that he would propose to me that summer, and that a little under 2 years that I prayed that “how long” prayer, we would get married. Now, at this time, we are almost four years in, and the time of waiting seemed like a second.
When we choose to wait on the Lord with trust, praise, and thanksgiving as David did, time isn’t an issue because God is above time. He knew you before you were in your mother’s womb according to Jeremiah 1:5. He sees the plan for your life, gives you desires, and no matter how long it is for us, our Lord sees the entire picture. He sees when you come out of that debt, when that person will show up, and when you will see your prayers answered!
I encourage you today to pray what David did in this season of waiting. Let’s pray together:
Father, we have trusted in Your steadfast love. We declare that our hearts will rejoice in Your salvation. We will sing to You because You have dealt bountifully with us. We thank You for the desires that You have placed within us. We give them to You and believe that You will lead us to those desires as we continue to praise You. In the name of Jesus, amen!
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Scripture is quoted from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.
