I am a girl who loves to sit with a cup of coffee and daydream. I am most passionate about Jesus, my family, and family ministry. My husband and I live in Oklahoma with our two precious daughters. I spend my days with my girls, discovering and growing alongside them! You can usually find us either in our sunroom, the park, or taking long walks through Target. :)
Vivid memories still linger from my childhood of those aching days before something exciting was going to take place. Perhaps it was spring break or a birthday. In my teen years it was summer camps.
Countless times I’d count down the days. Those periods of waiting might have felt unbearable at the time, but they were also exciting because I knew it would come to an end. The activity was marked on the calendar and I knew how long I’d have to wait.
Waiting on the Lord without a Set Date
Oh, but there are many times when what we desire isn’t marked on a schedule or calendar. Recently our 4 year old cashed in $5 worth of allowance quarters for a small Minnie Mouse doll- an item she’d spent months longing for.
Every time we went to the store she’d ask us if she had enough. We counted her money over and over, but without a clear concept of the value of money, she didn’t really understand. To her it felt endless. We were all weary from her waiting and it was a time of rejoicing when the wait came to an end.
Why Is It Taking So Long?
We can so relate to our children in their times of waiting, can’t we? Waiting is a life long experience in one way or another. Sadly, even as adults we don’t always handle it well.
I’ve had a particular request that I’ve been lifting to the Lord for years. At times I’ve been in such distress over it that I’ve found myself in doubt and anger.
“Where are you God? Why is this taking so long?”
“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 (KJV)
The Opportunity in Waiting on the Lord
In the last year I’ve been challenged to consider my desires a little more closely. Could it be that God has withheld this good thing from me because he wanted me to draw closer to Him?
While I can’t know for certain the reasons for my situation, I can (and should) analyze the status of my heart. In the past, I’ve held this request as something that is of the upmost importance for my happiness and worthiness on this earth.
Through this time of waiting, I’ve grown closer to the Lord and found more of the happiness and worth that comes through Jesus. He’s given me comforts and answers in other areas. He has blessed me with the assurance of his presence in my daily life. In this time of waiting I have been able to more fully know the joy that comes from God alone.
God’s Faithfulness While We are Waiting
“Because of the LORD’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! I say, ‘The LORD is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.” –Lamentations 3:22-26 (CSB)
I’ve always loved this passage from Lamentations 3. It was written in the context of waiting for an earthly deliverance, but it is a reminder for all of us that God is merciful to us and that He is enough. Our joy today is that He offers us salvation through Jesus. We have an eternal deliverance from our sin, and the gift of His Spirit.
My Heart While I’m Waiting on the Lord
I will continue to offer up my request to the Lord. He knows my heart and He tells me I can bring my burdens to Him. I will not complain to Him though, as if he hasn’t already filled me with the greatest joy I could ever know. My happiness and worth do not depend on my unmet desires, my happiness and worth is set in Christ alone. “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore I will hope in him.” (Lam. 3:24 KJV)
Encouragement for Your Heart
Are you waiting on the Lord in an area of your life?
Sweet one, I know that it is not easy. Waiting never is. I encourage you to draw yourself closer to the Lord when you are tempted to back away and doubt. Open your Bible and read it’s accounts. Start a prayer journal. Fill your soul with songs of praise. Feel His gentle whispers on the other pages of your heart.
What we long for we may never receive. May our true joy come not from our earthly circumstances but from our eternal destination. Praise Him, we are rescued!
I am an Oklahoman by birth, a Texan by current living situation, but claim the world as my playground.I love to travel and hope to someday soon take our family on adventures to far off lands, where we can share God with others and experience all the wonders He has created.
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
Thy will be done. Saying those words produces strong feelings in me. What about you? Are the words comforting? Do they make you ready to run? For me, it is both comforting and alarming. It makes me wonder what is about to happen, but also gets me excited to see what God is going to do.
Thy Will Be Done: How can this be both comforting and alarming?
From my own personal life experience, I’ve learned that when God calls, He typically starts to lead me in a way that changes my world and throws me out of my comfort zone. I’ve always considered myself a risk taker BUT God’s idea of risk is much greater than mine and yet, it is the safest thing of all. Because His ways are not our ways, He calls us to something more than this world has to offer. There have been many times that He has called me away from my wants and desires even when I thought they were based on His leading.
Fighting God’s Will in South America
I’ve seen God test my willingness to follow His lead. Maybe in actuality, I was the one testing God to see if I could conform His ways to my will instead of the other way around.
As a freshman in college, I was preparing to go on my first official mission trip. Every week our group of 4 people would meet for training and learn how to encourage open conversation and plant seeds of hope in the lives of others. We were raising funds and praying over the location we were destined to go. Four months into raising funds, we learned that our plans were being changed. Now instead of going to Argentina, which was the ONLY place I agreed to go to in South America, we were told we would be going to a town in Venezuela that was 90 miles from the Colombian border.
I pitched a fit or maybe more truthfully, I refused to go. I went to the office and stated how we had planned to go to Argentina. This was the only country I felt comfortable going to and we needed to get back to that place instead of wherever they were now sending us. I didn’t pray for understanding or for God to soften my heart on this. Instead, I dug my feet in and tried to fight to go to where I felt comfortable. God had different plans.
His ways are not our ways.
God knew I would never willingly choose to go to Venezuela, but He put me on a mission team destined for that very place–a place I soon fell in love with. I came to love Venezuela and it’s people so much that I returned the following summer.
God had big plans. He had been using teams for years to plant seeds in the hearts of people in Merida, Venezuela. That summer, we were able to continue planting seeds, as well as witnessing several dedicating their lives to Christ. It was thrilling! I got to see Jesus alive and well in the hearts of fellow brothers and sisters. The passion for Jesus was contagious and I came back living more impassioned for Christ than I ever had before.
Fighting God’s will in America
Years later, after my husband and I had “settled” into our cozy suburban neighborhood and started our family, God once again decided to change our lives. Looking back now, He called us to something earlier, but we were just to caught up in what we wanted to truly listen to what He wanted.
When we started changing how we prayed and asked God to lead us instead of just blessing whatever plan we had, He took our lives in a completely different direction. I’ve mentioned it before so I won’t go into details again but I will say that it was this time that God took us away from many of our physical “treasures.” He asked us to treasure Him more than our things. My perspective has definitely changed. Now, I look around at the things we own and feel as though I am ready to walk away from it all, if that is what God calls us to do.
My Realization
Between Venezuela and many other times when I decided to fight God’s will (did I mention I’m stubborn?), I realized something about myself:
I was determined to love God with all my heart and serve him with all I had, as long as I was comfortable.
It felt like I’d been sucker punched the moment I realized this truth. God doesn’t want to live in our confined boxes and He definitely doesn’t want us to. We can’t experience God’s amazing ways when we aren’t willing to walk in His splendor.
Lord teach us…
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
– Psalm 143:10
Will their be times of pain and discomfort?
YES! We can see this truth throughout the Bible. Every single person who followed God’s leading in their life had some form of discomfort. Why would we think that our lives should be any different? Do we really think that we deserve the nice house, the nice cars and all are nice things? Are we willing to give them up if called? If we struggle with answering “yes” to this question, then we may be finding ourselves only living for God as long as we are comfortable. This is a very dangerous place to be. It’s a place that Satan can work to encourage us never to leave.
(Now, am I not saying just because we have a nice house, a nice car, and nice things that we are not living for God? NOT AT ALL! But I am saying if we are putting those things before Christ, even if we don’t realize it, then we really need to question, if we are living for God or living for ourselves?)
We do not need to be afraid of any pain or discomfort that will come when we are walking in God’s will! God will give us a perfect peace when we follow Him.
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3
Every time I hear this song, Thy Will, on the radio, I can’t help but pray that I will allow my comfort zone to fade away so that God’s will is also fully my will no matter what the cost.
Are you ready to make that same commitment?
Don’t wait any longer to see God’s awesome power in your life!
Hello all!I am an Oklahoma girl, through and through!I was born here and after 5 years in Texas for college, I missed Oklahoma too much and just had to come back home with my Oklahoma husband to raise our Oklahoma babies! I met my husband in high school and fell we in love in college.We have 2 beautiful kids that are full of life and make me such a proud momma.I love to craft, journal, paint furniture, and decorate our Edmond home!See some of my creations at The Lettered Light www.etsy.com/shop/theletteredlight and IG:theletteredlight
Several years ago, I decided to pick a “word” for the year.
At the time, life seemed a little bit on the chaotic side. Who am I kidding – that’s all the time! I had a 9-month-old waking up several times every night and a 4 year old son who was testing all kinds of boundaries, and I was still trying to figure out this normal in our growing family. Finding a way to make all the demands fit together was a bit more than I could handle. I’m sure none of you can relate to a chaotic life, right? Right when you feel like you get a grasp on anything, it begins to change and slip through your hands again.
Well, when all of the crazy seemed to be enveloping me, I decided to pray about a WORD for my year. Now ya’ll, this kind of prayer can be scary. You start to realize that the Lord is about to speak to you. Yikes! You better hold on!
After a couple days of thinking and praying, there was one word that seemed to float to the top of all of my thoughts… TRUST. Yep, the big scary TRUST word. Now, the Lord knows this about me but I will let you all in on a little secret about myself….I have a hard time with trust. Not trust issues that stem from people hurting me but more of a controlling kind of trust. Like I can do it better kind of trust. I know the right way to do something kind of trust. Ew, just typing that out makes me feel ridiculous. (Thank you, Lord, so much for my amazing, patient husband. See ya’ll, the Lord knows what we need!)
Trust
So there it was, my word for the year – TRUST. I kept thinking, I need to put on my big girl panties and buckle up!
Now when I consider how trust fits in with the rest of my life, I see it as the result of a couple other things that are also hard:
1. TRUST
Trust is an acceptance of things that the Lord sends my way, whether I like it or not. And in my mind this has everything to do with faith.
2. FAITH
Faith is trusting that the Lord has my back and is taking care of me. The Lord knows what I need before I ask or even when I don’t ask. How great is that? SO GREAT!! (also a little unnerving for me) and when I can really begin to grasp the link of trust and faith, it brings me a great deal of peace.
3. PEACE
Peace can often feel like a deep heavy sigh. Whew! But let me tell you, the fear and anxiety leading up to that peace is really hard to fight through. I actually have this tattooed on my wrist. It reminds me that remembering to be at peace with the Lord’s plan and trusting in the faith that I believe – even when that seems most impossible – is completely necessary. It’s worth the internal battle!
In this verse that I illustrated, I am so drawn to the word “understanding.” I am often reminded in life that trusting the Lord, despite not understanding, is faith. Belief in that faith that the Lord has got me, offers a huge dose of peace. WHEW! Often times things happen that are not a part of my plan, but I can rest assured that they happen according to His plan!
What word has God been helping you to better understand?
Hey! While most of my life was spent in Colorado, I am happy to now call Oklahoma my home. I am amazingly blessed to have a supportive and God-fearing husband who is also a terrific dad to our four kiddos (who we had in a 3 year 9 month time frame). I love to drink coffee, sing, hear people’s stories and have dance parties. I am passionate about my relationship with Jesus and desire to share that gift with every person that I meet. My hope is that I can encourage someone today with and through the Word of God and His steadfast love. ::psalm 27:4::
“Baby, you need to stop getting upset at all the small things and reacting so poorly when things get hard. You have no control over what happens or how people treat you. The only thing you have the power to control is your response and attitude. You can let those small things ruin your day and ultimately lead to poor choices, or you can choose to be joyful and know in your heart that you are doing the right thing and actually growing as a person from it. I know it seems hard at times, but all you have to do is close your eyes…take a deep breath…and ask God for help. I promise, He is listening and wants to help you. You weren’t meant to do this without Him. You can’t do this without Him…”
The Same Struggles
Each word I spoke scraped several sensitive areas inside my heart before coming out of my mouth. Here I was, feeling beat down from circumstances of the day, instructing my daughter to let go of all the same little things to which I was tightly gripping. Sure, what I had been struggling with seemed to be on a greater level, but are our battles really all that different?
“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all…”
1 Corinthians 10:12-13a
You see, friends, when we remove all the smoke and mirrors disguising the core issues, our struggles are no different than our children’s struggles. After all, fear is fear…jealousy is jealousy…insecurity is insecurity…doubt is doubt…sin is sin. I think too many times we try to justify our reactions or complicate situations more than they ought to be, when it really just comes down to the struggle between flesh and Spirit.
“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind controlled by sinful nature is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.”
–Romans 8:5-6
A Choice in the Way We Respond
So just as we give our children a choice to do what is right and respond in a Christlike way, God has given us that very same choice. We can choose to respond in our flesh and in our own strength, or we can “close our eyes…take a deep breath…and ask God for help” because “I promise, He is listening and wants to help us. We weren’t meant to do this without Him. We can’t do this without Him.”
“… And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
-I Corinthians 10:13b
“Casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
I am an Oklahoman by birth, a Texan by current living situation, but claim the world as my playground.I love to travel and hope to someday soon take our family on adventures to far off lands, where we can share God with others and experience all the wonders He has created.
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
Growing up, I loved it when my mother would sit on the edge of my bed and pray over me. Often she thought I was already asleep. I would stay quiet and take in the words she prayed over me. I have learned to love to pray out loud over my family and others and enjoy it. But sometimes prayer doesn’t come easy.
When Prayer Doesn’t Come Easy
When prayer doesn’t come easy, my first reaction used to be fear.
What am I doing wrong?
Why can’t I pray?
Why is my mind just an absolute blank, when all I want to do it cry out to God?
What is going on?
Instead of giving in to that knee-jerk fear, when prayer doesn’t come easy, I’ve learned to do some simple other things.
What to do When Prayer Doesn’t Come Easy
Maybe some of these will help you, when you just can’t pray.
Confess
Sometimes, prayer doesn’t come easy because I haven’t been close to God. Maybe I’ve been accommodating my sin or just pushed God to the side in “my busy life.” I haven’t allowed Him to be the Lord of my life in all areas and so feel guilty and distant.
When that happens, I start to confess or ask God to open my eyes to why I’ve been avoiding Him.
BUT….
Sometimes, it’s not because I’ve been avoiding him. Sometimes, it feels like prayer doesn’t come easy because, my mind is just an absolute blank. It’s like I can’t think. I can’t process. It’s scary and frustrating.
When this happens, I simply confess exactly where I am….
”Lord, I love you. I don’t know what’s going on, but the words aren’t coming. I want to express to you my need and I want you to hear my prayer, but I can’t.”
(Even though it’s a few words, that’s technically a prayer. Talking with God in any form is praying, right?)
Trust in the Holy Spirit Going Before Me
When I get to the point of not being able to even put words together, I lean in and trust that the Holy Spirit is going before me. I thank God that even though I don’t have the words, his Holy Spirit knows my heart and knows I want to follow and love Him all my days.
He knows the struggles I am having and why my thoughts won’t form.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
– Romans 8:26-27
Praise God that he is always faithful and won’t turn from us, simply because our prayers are not eloquent and wordy!
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
-Jesus, Luke 18:13-14
The Lord hears the cries of our hearts and knows what they are before we ever understand them. We can seek comfort in the fact that he knows some moments in our lives are going to be minute by minute, day by day and gives us our daily bread – spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Read Other People’s Prayers
When praying doesn’t come easy, reading other people’s prayers encourages my heart. It almost kick starts my prayer muscle so I can feel that there is life in my prayers. I might not have the words but God has provided someone else’s heartfelt words so that I can still connect with Him.
Sometimes, their prayers lead me into my own words and sometimes I can only read theirs.
Did you know God doesn’t keep prayers from being heard because they are not your original words? It’s true!
He gives us plenty of prayers that vary from a few words to a few paragraphs in the Bible. I believe these prayers not only help to show us that prayers are as varied as people but help us in times when our own words aren’t coming.
Pray Directly from the Bible
There are times I read other people’s prayer and then there are times I read over scripture and pray those exact words. God’s word is powerful. Trusting that God means what He says and wants that in my life, allows me to lean into His words in order to pray.
Maybe it’s praying the blessing from Numbers 6:24, praying a Psalm, or praying whatever passage I’m reading.
No matter what scripture or Bible verse we choose, it can easily be turned into a prayer. Or simply even, “Lord, help my life start to reflect this passage.”
Ask Someone to Pray Over You
Asking your husband or a friend to pray with you is wonderful. If you have a prayer accountability group, letting them know that you feel blocked or unable to pray is a much needed request and allows honesty to encourage your faith instead of thinking that you have to be a perfect prayer warrior. Even prayer warrior’s get wounded and need extra help.
Draw Near to God…God Understands
We all go through ups and downs in our spiritual life. They may look differently from person to person, but if you ever find yourself having a difficult time praying, don’t take that as a sign that you are a bad person. Take it as a sign that you are going through a difficult season. Trust God will get you through it.
When prayer doesn’t come easy, it often feels like we are grappling to hold on to God. The good news is, when we draw near to God even if words don’t come, he holds us tightly in his hand. He knows our hearts and what is happening even when we don’t.
But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.
2 Thessalonians 3:3
Using Your Inability to Prayer to Encourage Others
Maybe, just maybe, part of the reason prayers aren’t coming easily now is because you will need to encourage someone else down the road whose prayers aren’t coming easily either.
Encouraging others to hold on to their faith, when our faith walk isn’t easy, is definitely a theme threaded throughout all of Scripture. Personally, I count these times of not being able to pray the way I wish I could as trials that allow me to just hold on and not give up.
If you’re in the midst of this right now, remember the best thing of all, God is holding you tight and won’t let you go just because your prayers aren’t coming easy.
I am a girl who loves to sit with a cup of coffee and daydream. I am most passionate about Jesus, my family, and family ministry. My husband and I live in Oklahoma with our two precious daughters. I spend my days with my girls, discovering and growing alongside them! You can usually find us either in our sunroom, the park, or taking long walks through Target. :)
In a Christian marriage there is a goal to put God first, but I’ll be honest–my husband and I didn’t really know what that meant when we got married. We knew we wanted to honor God in our life together and be part of a church family, but we really didn’t know the extent we’d be called to put God first.
At the beginning of our marriage we were consumed with personal needs. We’d read all kinds of marriage books talking about needs and love languages and respect, and while we tried hard to please each other, we got upset when we didn’t feel the same effort in response. Now, the lessons in those books are great–but we didn’t have the right mindset. We needed a mindset of grace if we were ever going to really put God first in our lives. Thankfully, over the last couple of years we’ve learned more about how to live a grace-filled marriage and it’s made such a wonderful impact on our life together.
Here is the new foundational truth for our marriage:
Our relationship with God is more important than our relationship with each other. This is how we truly put God first in our lives and in our family.
Now, you might not like the way that sounds but hear me out—
Supporting each other on your individual walks with God is the most important thing you can do for your marriage.
When your spiritual life becomes top priority you think differently. Your mission in life is no longer about your happiness on earth but your eternity with God–and this affects your marriage in a good way! When you are focusing on your eternal destination more than your current one you will be a better spouse. How do I know this? Well, focusing on my eternal destination means that I’m striving to be like Christ, and who can love my husband better than Christ? My best love for my husband will be fruit from my relationship with Christ.
“Every marriage goes through moments of anger and temporary failures. But you must determine your goal. What matters most: winning arguments or resembling Christ?” – Francis Chan (You and Me Forever)
I don’t know about you, but I want my life to resemble Christ. That’s way more important to me than making sure my needs and love languages are met. I’m not saying love languages and meeting needs are bad–they can be a very good thing when you are putting your desire to please Christ above your desire to please yourself. Then you will use those methods as God intended–as a way to serve your spouse.
Now, as wonderful as all that sounds we still have a little problem.
Are you still with me? My husband and I have a very tricky enemy working against us and he can use those needs and love languages as a stumbling block. Sometimes our spouses don’t meet our needs and don’t speak our love language and then what?? How will we respond?
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
The devil is looking to devour me. The devil is looking to devour my husband.
When a spouse messes up (no matter how insignificantly), you can bet your bottom dollar that Satan is on the hunt for victory. He’s watching how we will respond. This is why we need to lavish our marriages with grace.
Why? For us it’s simple.
Because the devil will NOT gain victory in our household.
No, he will not get an ounce.
Christ gets all the power, all the glory, and all the victories in our house.
So what do we do when the devil is prowling at our door? How do we let Christ get the glory in our home? Well first, we stay on our guard and know who our enemy is! It’s really easy for me to feel brokenhearted when things aren’t going my way. In return, I can act pretty ungodly, treating my poor husband like he is my enemy. I know that my husband has triggers too, times when the devil is crawling at his feet. There are going to be misunderstandings and times when we mess up and end up hurting each other.
However, Satan is our enemy in these times. It’s not my husband. It’s not me. Knowing that Satan is the enemy makes it easier to extend grace to each other because we know that we are each on the pursuit of holiness. We want to encourage each other on this process, not get in the way. We want Christ to come first in our marriage. This means that we want to be like Christ and we want to show Christ’s love to be fruitful in our marriage. We want God to take the victory, and he does! God takes the victory every time we set our personal needs aside and extend loving grace in His name!
Live a grace-filled marriage.
When you and your spouse find yourself at odds, offer grace. Once you extend grace, you can then demand the enemy leave your home. If you’ve seen the movie War Room, then you remember that powerful scene where Elizabeth Jordan literally yells at Satan to get out of her house–she even yells him out of her front lawn! There is something to be said for verbally voicing Satan to leave. It shows we really mean it and we want him to hear it! Also, then you should pray.
We can’t fight the enemy on our own. We need God’s help. So get down on your knees -together or alone. Beg God to fight the enemy out of your life and your household.
Let God do all the fighting in your marriage.
“God will fight for you; you need only to be still.”- Exodus 14:14
Let God claim the victory in your grace-filled marriage.
