When God asks you to wait

When God asks you to wait

What can we learn from those who have battled addiction, heartbreak, and delay while clinging to faith? This conversation between Sarah and Debbie circles around one theme every Christian knows too well: waiting.

Aimed especially at women juggling marriage, parenting, finances, health worries, and even a loved one’s addiction, the episode looks at why God sometimes seems to say, “Not yet.” Drawing on stories of Sarah, Hannah, Rachel, Ruth, Elizabeth, Joseph and Jeremiah, they show that long seasons of silence in the Bible often came right before something “spectacular” – but the wait still hurt.

Sarah and Debbie outline four main reasons God might ask someone to wait: to mature and equip them, to deepen intimacy with him, to build persistent prayer, and because he’s quietly arranging something far better than they can see. As Debbie puts it, “He doesn’t waste the wait.” From her own divorce, years of singleness, and a slow-starting ministry, she shares how delays later made sense in hindsight.

You’ll also hear seven practical Bible-based principles for staying patient: remembering God’s power, his personal care, his perfect timing, and his past faithfulness; asking for the Holy Spirit’s fruit of patience; resisting the urge to force outcomes; and keeping hopeful anticipation alive – “The ketchup is going to come out eventually.” There’s honest talk about numbing pain with alcohol, shopping or TV instead of running to God, and some gentle humour about high-maintenance relatives, broken trucks, and 1970s ketchup bottles.

A vivid picture of a conch shell anchors it all: “Just because I can’t see what you’re doing doesn’t mean you’re not up to something.” Anyone waiting for reconciliation, healing, financial relief, or a prodigal’s return will come away reminded that waiting doesn’t mean abandonment – so what might God be forming in the hidden places while you’re tempted to give up?