That Wait Could Be A Season Of Growth

Growing up, one way we knew a particular food or fruit was in season was how my mum would buy them.

She could come back with a whole bag of pineapples, and you’d wonder if that’s all we’d eat for the week.

And if you’re more of a mango fan than pineapple, you’d ask her why she didn’t buy a bag of mangoes too.

My mum usually tells us this when she buys those plenty of foods or fruits at a time: when something is in season, eat much of it. At that time, it is both in abundance and affordable. Moreover, some other complementary ones (like mangoes in my story) may not be in season. So you draw the savor and nutrients available in abundance until that season is over and the next season with its peculiar food shows up.

Have you experienced such abundance and lack of different things at different times?

Abundance of loneliness, confusion, and a burden.

Like everything you desire at the moment is out of season.

And your life is on hold.

You just keep working and waiting for your desires to flourish.

And the wait seems long and lonely.

I’ve gone through different cycles of this.

Not just me… even within the past two weeks, I’ve talked to three friends who voiced their frustration and depression over a WAIT.

I know how a WAIT that looks endless feels. But here is what I’ve got to tell you, friend:

You are in a season.

Identifying Seasons

The Bible tells us that to everything there is a season. God leads us through to bring us to. Before the Israelites got to the season of abundance in the promised land, they had a season of walking through the wilderness.

Deuteronomy 8:2 – “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.”

Before a baby is born, there’s a season of pregnancy. Ask a mum about the ups and downs she goes through during pregnancy.

Before a tree grows, a seed must be buried in the ground, ‘root’ down before it shoots up.

Before mankind could be saved, Jesus had to first be born.

Think about it. God could have sent Him straight as the Savior to come and die. But He didn’t. A girl had to divinely get pregnant. Carried Him for nine months. Gave birth to baby Jesus. He grew. Waited till age 30 before He started His public ministry.

Jesus had His waiting season too!

Just so we’re all on the same page about what a season is: It is a time characterized by a particular circumstance or feature.

The circumstance could be an area of your life that looks like a pause button is pressed over it, a burning desire for something, separation, silence, confusion, emptiness or an area of life that needs your heightened attention… they all could be pointers to a season.

A waiting season.

What You Need for This Season

You need to fix your eyes on God.

In the next post, I’ll share more about stewarding different seasons of life well.

For now, I need you and me to sit into this waiting season.

We’re not just waiting FOR something (whatever it is we desire) we’re waiting ON God. Because, like the Psalmist says, our expectation is from Him.

Friend, see this season as something happening FOR you, not something happening TO you.

I love the way the Message (MSG) version of Romans 8:22-28 puts it:

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs.

But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs.

These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance.

That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting.

We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along.

If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God.

That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Renewing Your Mindset About Waiting

Waiting doesn’t mean your life is on a temporal hold till whenever.

Merriam-Webster defines “wait” as to stay in place in expectation of…

Wait is a verb. A verb is an action word (I know you know.)

I just want to remind you that there’s a ‘doing’ during a wait that draws the needed blessing.

I went into detail about it in the post on How to Firmly Wait on the Lord When He Seems Silent – The Remarkable Radiance in a Wait.

Click the link, read and… WAIT.

You never wait on God in vain.

See you next week with more about seasons.