The Weight of Waiting

Waiting.

These seven letters describe one of the hardest things we will ever have to do in life.

It simply means to tarry. To be patient. To believe. To have faith when everything around you suggests otherwise. It sounds passive, but it isn't. Waiting may look like you're doing nothing, but it is one of the hardest acts of faith. It is choosing to trust, to keep showing up, and to keep believing even when there is nothing physical to hold on to.

I have heard a lot of people talk about waiting. And of course, we all have different waiting seasons and different things we are waiting for. But if you've never really experienced extended waiting in certain areas of your life, you may not fully understand what it feels like. Some kinds of waiting cannot be explained. They can only be lived.

Let me tell you about a few women in the Bible who knew what it meant to wait.
You know what made their stories even more painful? It was knowing that the delay was because of them.

It is one thing to be waiting while the doctors tell you that nothing is wrong with either of you. It is another thing entirely to carry the weight of knowing the problem is you. That kind of waiting comes with its own heartbreak.

Think about Hannah. (1 Samuel 1–2)
She was Elkanah's wife, but she also had a co-wife, Peninnah, who had children. So every day, there was a reminder of what she did not have. Imagine being mocked year after year because of the one thing you desired most. Imagine having a husband who genuinely loved you, comforted you, and cared for you, yet still couldn't fully understand your pain. After all, he already had children. He wasn't the one carrying the burden of unanswered prayers.

Then there was the pain of praying.

Every year, Hannah went to Shiloh. Every year she prayed. Every year she hoped that maybe this would be the year. Maybe this visit would be different. Maybe this time, God would answer.

And then there were the quiet moments no one talks about. The moments after another month had passed. The hope that maybe this time she had conceived. Maybe this month would finally be different. Only for another cycle to come and with it, another disappointment.

How do you keep hoping after that?
How do you continue believing without becoming bitter?

Then there was Elizabeth in Luke 1.
The Bible describes her and Zechariah as righteous before God, faithfully obeying His commands. Yet they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and by the time we meet them, they were both well advanced in age.

Can you imagine that?

To love God. To serve Him faithfully. To do the right things. And still wait.

To watch the years go by. To slowly accept that maybe motherhood was never going to happen for you. To move from believing it would happen one day to wondering if that day had already passed.

A clear reminder that God's timing may not always make sense. Sometimes He answers when we have stopped trying to figure Him out

And then, there is Sarah. (Genesis 11–21)
I believe Patience should have been her name.
Imagine being called the ‘mother of nations’ directly by God. (Genesis 17:16)

Years passed. Then more years passed. At some point, how do you continue making sense of the promise? Imagine giving your maid to your husband, only for her to become pregnant almost immediately while you, the woman who received the promise, still had no child.

Your maid conceived.

You didn't. What an irony.

Then you have to live through the jealousy, the anger, the questions, and the disappointment. Yet every new year, there is still a part of you that whispers, "Maybe this will finally be my year."

Because if we're honest, this story was never just about waiting for a child.

It is about waiting for the job that hasn't come. The healing you've prayed for. The relationship you thought would happen by now. The business you've poured everything into. The promise God gave you that still hasn't become your reality.

And then you begin to realize something.

God giving His word does not always mean the waiting ends immediately.
Sometimes the promise comes long before the manifestation.

Sometimes waiting is where God slowly brings you to the end of yourself, until your confidence is no longer in timelines, methods, or even the answer you're praying for.

It is simply in Him.