Waiting and Trusting - Where Faith Becomes Necessary and Relationship Becomes Foundational

What does it look like to truly wait on and trust in the Lord?

We’ve all faced moments of waiting. Some of us are in one right now—some of us have just come out of one—some of us are stepping into one. Some harder than others, some easier than others, but all of us know what it feels like to be in a season where we are waiting.

Waiting for an answer.Waiting for a promise.Waiting for healing.Waiting for direction.Waiting for rescue.

And yet, I want to remind you of something that often gets lost in the middle of it:

It is a season. Not a permanent place. You will not be stuck here forever.

It’s one thing to say we trust God when everything is visible and clear. But when nothing is clear, when there’s no timeline, no explanation, no movement you can see—that is where faith stops being an idea and becomes something you live. Waiting is where faith becomes necessary.

My prayer for this message is that you would begin to see your waiting differently. That you would begin to embrace hope that there is purpose in this season. That you would find peace in His timing, strength in His presence, and come out of this season with renewed purpose, stepping fully into what He has called you to.

Because waiting on and in God is never wasted but sacred.

The Cost is Worth the Reward

The cost of waiting is real. And often, it is heavier than we expect.

Waiting on the Lord and His timing is not always easy. There are moments where it feels more painful to wait on Him than to take matters into our own hands and try to fix things ourselves.

Because waiting removes control. And surrendering control is never comfortable.

But Scripture calls us into something deeper:

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart be courageous. Wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14)

That verse doesn’t just suggest waiting—it requires strength in it. Courage in it. Faith in it. And the Lord provides every one of those things.

Faith becomes real in these seasons. Not optional. Not theoretical. Necessary.

“I wait for the Lord; I wait and put my hope in His word.” (Psalm 130:5)

Waiting is not passive—it is active trust in motion.

And even though it can feel costly in the moment, I can genuinely say from my own life:

The cost is always worth the reward when you wait on the perfect timing of the Lord.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)

The pain of waiting will not even closely compare with the glory that will be revealed in His timing.

The Hope of Waiting

My story is one of waiting—and of God’s faithfulness in it.

As I’ve told before, my childhood was marked by years of sexual abuse by my biological father.

It was hidden. It was painful. And for a long time, silence and pain were a prison I saw no escape from.

I don’t share that to stay in the pain, but to make something very clear: even in the places I thought God had abandoned me, He was there.

Not distant. Not unaware. But present.

“I called on Your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit… You came near whenever I called You.” (Lamentations 3:55–57)

There were moments I didn’t recognize at the time—small things that felt insignificant—but they were His fingerprints. They were His grace and love weaving together a story of redemption.

God was already working in my waiting.

There was a moment that changed everything.

I reached a point where I couldn’t carry the weight anymore. The silence. The fear. The internal tension of living a life I hated and yearning for the one I knew God called me to.

And in that moment, I felt the Lord ask me something I will never forget:

“Do you trust Me?”

Not in a comforting way—but in a confronting way.

Because I realized I was still trying to control what only He could carry.

I had two choices: stay in silence or surrender into truth.

And I chose truth.

That yes was not easy—but it was freeing.

It became the beginning of God moving everything into place. Step by step, He strengthened me, led me, and made a way where I saw none.

What followed was not instant ease—but it was undeniable faithfulness.

Waiting hurt, and it was scary, but the Lord was always there, and the glory of His perfect timing has been made so evident in my life now and I can truly say that the cost was worth the reward.

Active Waiting and Binding

Waiting is not just sitting still. It is active.

The Hebrew word for waiting, qavah, means to actively hope, and to bind together, to bind like a rope being strengthened strand by strand.

Waiting is a season of bonding closely with the Lord.

It is learning to trust Him in what you cannot yet see. It is choosing obedience when understanding is missing. It is staying close when everything in you wants to run.

We see Joseph as a picture of this.

He was given a dream, a promise from God. Then in his waiting was betrayed, sold, and forgotten in prison, none of which was God’s will for his life, but God used those seasons for Josephs good. Josephs binding with the Lord, and trusting Him through everything that looked like the promise was forgotten and gone, is what the Lord is calling us to do. And I think such a beautiful thing about Josephs story is that over and over Scripture says, “The Lord was with Joseph.”, every time he moved to a new place, a new season, God was with him.

Not just in the promise—but in the process.

He didn’t understand how betrayal connected to calling. Or how prison connected to purpose. But nothing was wasted. He was faithful in every season, stewarding where he was in the moment and trusting the Lord to provide.

Every step of faithfulness in the waiting was shaping him for what God had already prepared. For the promise Joseph was still actively hoping in.

And Joseph saw the reward of his waiting, his trusting, and his bonding.

The Pearl: Beauty Formed in Pressure

I think a pearl so perfectly represents the picture I am trying to paint.

It begins with irritation—something foreign entering the shell, causing discomfort and disruption.

And the the Oyster begins to cover it slowly, layer by layer, with something called nacre which is there to protect the oyster from the irritation.

Over time, what caused pain becomes something beautiful. Something valuable. Something refined.

Waiting often feels like that.

Like pressure that doesn’t make sense in the moment. Like discomfort that feels unanswered. But God is not wasting it.

He is forming something in it.

Layer by layer.Season by season.With purpose.

The Lord is that nacre, that layer that comes between us and the thing meant to harm us. It doesn’t mean it may not be a little uncomfortable, but He is protecting us and turning that irritant into something so precious, refined, and beautiful.

Weeds in the Garden of Waiting

One of the hardest parts of waiting is that it doesn’t just test your patience—it tests your focus.

Because waiting is a place where something is always trying to grow. And if we’re not intentional, the wrong things will take root.

Anxiety. Fear. Doubt. Confusion. Worry.

These are the quiet enemies of the waiting season.

Anxiety has a way of convincing you that something is wrong just because something is not moving. It makes you interpret silence as absence. Delay as denial. Waiting as abandonment.

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its problems—but it empties today of its strength and peace.

And if we’re not careful, we begin to slowly lose the ability to see God in the middle of it. We stop turning our valley into worship, and instead, we start turning it into questioning.

The enemy doesn’t always try to destroy you with obvious attacks. Sometimes he just tries to distract you in the waiting long enough for you to forget who God is.

I’ve been there—where thoughts spiral, where fear gets loud, where doubt starts to feel more logical than faith. But I’ve also learned something important:

You cannot let the enemy have unchallenged access to your mind in a season meant for intimacy with God.

Because the waiting season is not just about what God is doing around you—it is about what He is forming in you.

That is why Scripture calls us to take every thought captive. Because what you agree with in the waiting will shape what you carry out of it.

Don’t let doubt rewrite what God already promised. Don’t let it have a say in your future.

There is a tension that a lot of people live in without realizing it:

They pray in faith—but they wait in doubt.

They ask God for breakthrough, but internally assume nothing will change. They speak belief with their mouth, but carry expectation of disappointment in their heart.

But faith doesn’t work in contradiction.

You cannot pray in faith but wait in doubt.

Doubt slowly disconnects you from expectation. And expectation is often where your posture toward God is formed.

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt…” (Matthew 21:21)

“And when he saw the wind, he was afraid…” (Matthew 14:30)

Peter walked on water until doubt shifted his focus. The moment his eyes moved from Jesus to the storm, fear followed.

That is what doubt does in the waiting—it redirects your focus away from the One holding you.

Waiting often brings you into places that feel like valleys—places that feel low, heavy, and unclear.

A valley where answers feel far away, and peace feels hard to hold onto.

But Scripture doesn’t avoid valleys—it transforms them.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” (Psalm 23:4)

Notice it says through, not stuck in.

That means valleys are not permanent places—they are passing places.

And in those places, something powerful can happen: the valley can become a place of worship instead of fear.

Because what you choose to do in the valley changes the atmosphere of the valley.

If you only focus on fear, it becomes a valley of anxiety.If you focus on doubt, it becomes a valley of confusion.But if you choose to lift your eyes, it becomes a valley of praise.

This is where faith becomes active.

Not when everything is easy—but when everything is unclear.

Because praising God in the valley doesn’t mean you understand the valley. It means you trust the One walking through it with you.

And slowly, what once felt like a place of death becomes a place where your faith is refined, your trust is deepened, and your relationship with God becomes unshakable.

You see, faith is not the absence of questions. It is the decision to trust God in the middle of them.

Even the smallest seed of faith carries power when it is placed in a faithful God.

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…” (Matthew 17:20)

So in the waiting, we have to guard what we agree with.

Because you cannot live in expectation of breakthrough while rehearsing disappointment.

In His Perfect Timing

So, to wrap this all up, we are promised victory—but often it comes through waiting.

“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him.” (Lamentations 3:25)

And while you’re waiting:

Be preparing. Be hoping. Be binding yourself closely to Him.

Don’t let the enemy steal the purpose in the waiting.

Remember this:

Waiting may be painful—but the glory of His timing will always be worth it.

There is hope. There is purpose. And there is a faithful Father who is holding you through every part of it.