Do you feel like you are all alone in God’s waiting room, wondering when He’s going to call you back and answer your prayers? Does it seem like everything comes easily to others, but not you?
Here’s a picture that God gave me about hard times and waiting.
Imagine standing on a mountain next to Jesus. He takes your hand and starts to walk you down toward the valley. As you descend, a layer of fog appears. Clouds blanket the valley below obscuring your vision. Soon you are both engulfed in that fog. Although you can feel your hand in His, you have trouble seeing Jesus clearly. After a short while you reach the valley, but it is totally black like on a moonless, starless night. You cannot even see your hand in front of your face. You also realize that you no longer sense His presence. Perhaps you feel helpless. Alone.
This is where many give up and miss receiving God’s best answer to their prayers. You’ve prayed for a month, a year, or perhaps many years for healing, restoration of a relationship or financial turnaround. Yet no amount of prayer or faith seems to bring results. In fact, difficult circumstances have inserted themselves right when you were expecting a blessing.
Is God ignoring you?
Oswald Chambers describes this “death of a vision” in his devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. During this season of waiting, it seems as if God has either left us or changed His mind. But this is an important time of testing. In the valley, God tests our faith. He molds us, hammers us and refines us into the image of His Son.
God doesn’t hide things from us; He hides things for us.
In the picture referred to earlier, the Lord showed me that if I wait in the dark and trust Him and His Word, if I hang on to His promises and add my faith to it and keep praying, there will come a time when Jesus reaches up and pulls a little chain and a small light comes on. Then I can see crates stacked here and there as if we are in a dimly lit warehouse. Jesus walks over to one and opens it up. Inside is a gift for me—a spiritual gift. Another crate is opened, and it contains the answer to my prayers.
I asked the Lord, “Why is there fog covering the valley of darkness?”
“Would you willingly go there if you could see dark times coming?” He asked.
Would any of us volunteer for the difficult season we’re in, or the next one waiting around the corner? Probably not.
The Word talks about treasures hidden in the darkness. We get to see those treasures when we lean on, trust in and totally rely on Him. The dark times require us to walk by faith.
Is it easy to wait? Not for me. Waiting is a test of our faith. We need to ask God what He is trying to teach us during this time.
Sadly, many get angry at God, give up and decide to do life their own way. It’s important to guard against bitterness and resentment, too. Discipline and hardship are not pleasant, but God disciplines those He loves as a father disciplines a child.
But God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:10-11).
Happiness is fleeting and does not teach us anything. True joy comes when we walk with Him through the dark valleys with a teachable heart and come up out of the darkness more spiritually mature.
Here is an encouraging promise from God:
I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down [relax My hold on] you! (Hebrews 13:5 AMP)
What can we do while we are in God’s waiting room? Meditating on God’s Word, prayer, praise and worship are all faith builders as we wait for the darkness to dissipate.
Knowing there are treasures hidden in the darkness comforts me when I feel all alone in a crisis or time of testing. It helps for me to review this picture as I, too, am waiting for some promises to be released and some prayers to be answered.
As you wrestle with the waiting, remember that this testing will not last forever. God is faithful and He is for you.
Lord, give us the grace to wait with patience knowing that You delight to give good gifts to Your children. Help us to remember that Your timing is perfect. In Jesus’ name, amen.