Why is waiting for an answer so hard?

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been doing a lot of reflecting about where God has me right now.  A lot has happened over the past five months since leaving my last job.  We have started a non-profit, formed a board and filed paper work for our tax-exempt status.  We have put together a business plan of what we think the next 3 years could look like and we dream, pray, and wait for God to open doors and reveal the next step in our journey.

Waiting is really hard for me!  I want answers now.  I want to know where God wants us to use our gifts and help others.  I want to make an impact now and yet God keeps saying to be patient, wait and trust Me!

This week we had to take a step of faith to purchase tickets for a trip to Ukraine in October.  We felt that this was what God wanted us to do and He had opened doors for a plan on what we could accomplish, but we still don’t have our approval from the IRS, and we are not able to raise funds to pay for this trip, but we hear from God – trust Me!

I have been struggling with writer’s block since returning from Colorado.  I have sat down numerous times to write a blog or edit my book and nothing comes and I begin to have doubts and wonder who will ever be interested in reading what I write or having us help them?  Who would ever want to be mentored and coached by us?  I know these thoughts are coming from Satan, who wants to distract us and take us off our calling, but they are still real and hard!  Discouragement is so easy to experience when you are in the waiting stage.

This morning I went back and read through my journal since last November.  I could see all of the ways that God was preparing us for where we are today.  I found encouragement that we are on the right path.  On March 1^st, the day after my job ended, this was the devotional from Jesus Calling:

YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT PATH. Listen more to Me and less to your doubts. I am leading you along the way I designed just for you. Therefore, it is a lonely way, humanly speaking. But I go before you as well as alongside you, so you are never alone. Do not expect anyone to understand fully My ways with you, any more than you can comprehend My dealings with others. I am revealing to you the path of Life, day by day and moment by moment. As I said to My disciple Peter, so I repeat to you: Follow Me.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. —PSALM 119:105

Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” —JOHN 21:22

Wow – just what I needed to be reminded of!  In reality, my doubts and fears get louder when I take my eyes off God and think about myself!  God is in control.  God knows what is ahead and promises to be with me, I just have to do my part, which is to follow Him and TRUST!

Maybe you are in a season of waiting and feeling discouraged because things are not moving at the pace you want it to be at.  I want to encourage you to read Psalm 139.  For me this is one of my favorite passages of scripture and a reminder that God knows and is with us and He has a plan for our lives!  A couple of verses from this chapter:

“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
Psalms 139:16, 23-24 NLT