5 Things To Do in a Waiting Season

What do you do in a waiting season? When you’re waiting to date the right person. When you’re waiting to get married. When you’re waiting to figure out what to do with your life. When you’re waiting on a healing. How do you respond? What should you pray? That’s what we’re going to dive into with this blog.

So when I think about waiting seasons, I think about King David. There was always something throughout his life that he was waiting on it seemed. And so to address some of the questions and concerns you probably have about your waiting season, I want to look at the life of David and what we can learn from him in the Word.

David was a man after God’s own heart. So David was a good dude. Being a man after God’s own heart did not disqualify him from enduring storms and sitting in waiting seasons. I am sure that you are a woman or man after God’s own heart, but that doesn’t disqualify you from enduring storms and sitting in waiting seasons. 

So my first point for facing a waiting season is this: 

#1 Focus on today

So back in the day, when people became kings, they were anointed with oil to basically say - this is the one chosen to become king.

David took care of sheep for a living and was the youngest and smallest of all his brothers, yet he was the one chosen to become king. But after David was anointed, he didn’t just become king. He had to wait years for that to come to pass. And you know what he had to do right after he was anointed?

He had to go right back to tending the sheep like he was before. 

And so he’s sitting in a waiting season, knowing that there’s a calling on his life ahead, but yet understanding the importance of what was right in front of him for that day.

Ever since a dear student of mine passed this past summer, it has gotten more real that today could be my last. The importance of focusing on the day ahead is greater now than ever before for me. And so every day I tell God - “Thank you for another day,” and I repeat it and repeat it until it sinks in and I realize the gift that is in today. Until I’m focused on what’s right in front of me today.

Every single day you’re given is a new day, a fresh start, a free gift. And someone else around the world didn’t get that gift. So focus on what you have today, because that’s going to build your tomorrow.

The Word says in Matthew 6:34 “So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today.”

If David wouldn’t have tended to his sheep that day, he would not have been equipped or ready to face the giant in his life years later.

And by giant, I mean a literal giant. This is David and Goliath. When that moment comes for David to fight this giant, he says, “I’ve been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock I’d go after it, knock it down, and rescue the lamb. If it turned on me, I’d grab it by the throat, wring its neck, and kill it. Lion or bear, it made no difference - I killed it. And I'll do the same to this Philistine pig who is taunting the troops of God-Alive. God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from the Philistine.”

Basically he’s saying - “Those moments that seemed insignificant when I was stuck waiting, I made the most of them, and now I’m ready for what’s in front of me today.”

So David also during this time is called up to do something kind of wild. He is called to serve the king that he is going to replace. And that is King Saul. Here’s our next point:

#2 Let go of the things you can’t control

So the reason David needed to become the king was because Brother Saul was having major issues. He was suffering from some major depression, mental health stuff.

Saul was looking for someone who could play music to help calm him. And David just so happened to play the harp. So he becomes Saul’s right-hand man. The Bible said David was his harp player, but also his armor bearer, someone to help protect him.

So David basically steps into this role where he has to not only make Saul feel better, but he also has to carry his weight.

Maybe you’re in that position with family or friends. Where you feel this responsibility to not only make everyone feel good and feel better, but to also carry the weight and load of all of it. That’s what David felt.

And what’s crazy is that King Saul, who David is going to replace, eventually becomes his father-in-law. Saul becomes his father. And so now David is in close proximity with his new dad that has a mental illness and relies on his son to help him and save him.

David cannot change the way Saul thinks. David cannot control how Saul reacts. David can play the harp and tend to sheep. That’s what he can control.

You can’t control the actions of others. You can’t control the words of others. You can’t control the outcome of different situations. You can only control what you say, how you act, what you do. 

So every morning, that’s been another prayer for me - “God, help me to control the things that I can control and let go of the things that I can’t.”

If you’re facing burnout in a waiting season, no it’s not fair what you’ve had to deal with most likely. But I’ve learned that burnout a lot of times comes from our own unmet expectations. Of wanting to control the reactions or outcomes of people or situations, but not seeing it happen how we want it. And so we have to learn how to let go of the things we can’t control.

#3 Protect your heart

1 Samuel 19:9-10 says, “Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. 10 And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.”

For David, he literally needed to protect his heart, otherwise a spear was going to fly through it. And you talk about hot and cold - one minute you’re marrying Saul’s daughter, and the next he’s throwing a spear at you.

It says David fled and escaped that night. David had to make a change to his environment. He had to protect his heart.

If you’re in a waiting season, and you feel like your heart and soul are under attack, you need to make a change to your environment. If you feel like there are people in your life who are trying to pin you to a wall like David, you need some boundaries.

David still loved Saul. David did not want to see Saul hurt even when Saul wanted to see David dead. But David still needed space and time away.

So do things and make time for things that protect your heart. That give you rest. That get you out of fight or flight mode. For me it’s been waking up and running in the morning. It’s almost like I need to speed up my body to slow my thoughts down it seems. If my body’s going to slow, my mind tends to go too fast.

We have to do things that slow our thoughts down in waiting seasons or hard times. Or we will crash. So I want you to think - What are some things I can implement that refresh me, that bring me life, that give me soul space, that protect my heart?

#4 Trust in God and His timing

Now when you’re in a waiting season, this is so annoying to hear, and I know that. But we would have so much more peace if we lived this way.

We are being trained to get things instantly. We see the timelines of people’s lives on a screen in front of our faces, and it’s easy to compare where we’re at compared to where others are at. It can make us feel like we’re constantly behind.

And on top of that, we’re constantly being told to take things into our own hands. To be our own savior. To make things happen in our own strength.

David was being pursued by Saul because Saul wanted to kill him. He wanted to end David’s life. And in 1 Samuel 24, David and Saul end up in the same spot, but Saul doesn’t know, and David has the opportunity to end this season of being hunted down and to begin his reign as king - and he could do it by killing Saul right then and there. But he chooses not to. He knows it’s not what God wants him to do. He doesn’t rush this season. He doesn’t take matters into his own hands.

When Saul realizes that David was in there and could have killed him, he said, “You are more righteous than I. You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. You have just now told me about the good you did to me; the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today. I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands.”

And this happened not once, but twice - where David let Saul go. David, the boy who was anointed to be king at a young age, who is still waiting to be king, is willing to do things that don’t make sense, to not rush a moment to get what He wants, but to instead trust in God and His timing.

And now our last point: 

#5 Understand that every season is a waiting season

If you’re not waiting on one thing, you’re going to be waiting on another thing.

When David became king, the thing that he was waiting and working for his whole life, you know what happened? His own son tried to overthrow him. Are you kidding me. I get past the person who’s trying to kill me - my father-in-law, and now my son is trying to turn people against me…

There will always be something in each season of life that you’ll be waiting on.

If you’re not waiting to drive, you’re waiting to graduate. If you’re not waiting to graduate, you’re waiting to figure out what you want to do with your life. If you’re not waiting to be dating, you’re gonna be waiting to get married. If you’re not waiting to be married, you’re going to be waiting to have kids. If you’re not waiting to have the dream job, you’re going to be waiting to have the dream house.

There will always be things that you are waiting on, and I understand that some things carry more weight than others, but we have to learn the art of contentment in each season, or we will never be living in the present moment.

One more thing that I’ve been praying every day on my morning run/walks is, “God, help me to dwell in your paradise today.” God has given us glimpses of paradise here. But we can miss out on dwelling in His paradise if we are always focused on what’s not fixed or what’s missing.

Coming from somebody who has experienced the joy of having my dream husband, having my dream daughter, having my dream house, having my dream job, all the problems in my life don’t go away once those things come to pass. Fulfillment, contentment, beauty - it’s not found in these big monumental moments where you pass from one season to the next or when you see a huge breakthrough happen.

It’s in the quiet moments when no one notices. It’s in the ordinary, simple moments in the midst of your waiting season - where you see the beauty in the ashes, and you dwell in His paradise even just for a moment. It’s when you’re tending sheep. It’s when you’re playing the harp. 

You see, we want to romanticize the future and romanticize the past, so we have a really hard time staying in the present. But these are the days. This is the season.

I don’t know why it’s the season, but it’s the season. So be like David. Focus on today. Let go of the things you can’t control. Protect your heart. Trust in God and His timing. And understand that every season is a waiting season.