Waiting with Purpose: When the Hope Feels Delayed
by Angela Miller, Program Manager
There are seasons in life when timelines feel clear and expectations feel grounded.
And then there are seasons when what we thought would happen… doesn’t.
Right now, I find myself in one of those places.
At 41 weeks and 5 days pregnant, we are waiting to meet our baby boy!
If you know me, you know we’ve held this reality loosely, understanding that babies can come early or late. We knew this. I’ve prepared for this. I help other moms as a birth doula understand this reality, waiting is part of the process.
But there’s a difference between knowing something in your mind… and living it out in real time.
Because when the due date passes—and then more days continue to pass—something begins to surface. As we wait there can bubble up various feeling and questions.
Questions like:
Will this ever happen?
Will I ever be on the other side of this?
How much longer will this take?
When will things finally shift?
Will I ever feel relief?
Will I ever feel happy again?
or
Maybe it’s:
Will I ever get the job I’ve been praying for?
Will this ministry ever grow?
Will this relationship ever heal?
Will this difficult season ever end?
Will I ever feel peace again?
Waiting has a way of revealing what is really beneath the surface.
Waiting Is a Physical Picture of a Spiritual Reality
One of the things the Lord has been showing me is how pregnancy and birth are such a powerful physical representation of spiritual waiting.
When you are pregnant, there is already life forming within you, even before you fully see it.
There is anticipation.
Preparation.
Expectation.
You make room in your home.
You prepare your heart.
You speak about what is coming long before it arrives.
Spiritually, many of us are living in similar places.
We are carrying prayers.
Longings.
Callings.
Dreams.
Promises we believe God has spoken.
Yet there is often a space between what we believe God has promised and when we see fulfillment.
A space where something is still being formed.
And just like pregnancy, spiritual waiting can feel beautiful one moment and stretching the next.
Moments of excitement.
Moments of exhaustion.
Moments filled with faith.
Moments where disappointment tries to or does creep in.
But just because we cannot yet see fulfillment does not mean God is absent from the process.
Something is still growing.
Something is still being prepared.
We Wait with Anticipation, Not Worry
Waiting invites us to choose what posture we will hold while we wait. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like we have a choice though and we easily slip into something that’s worrisome.
It is so easy to wait in our flesh.
To expect certain outcomes.
To analyze every detail.
To try to mentally solve what only God fully sees.
The world often teaches us to wait with anxiety:
Trying to control outcomes.
Trying to force something forward.
Trying to figure out every nuance.
After all, our hearts often think:
If I can just understand it enough, maybe I can control it.
We search for answers everywhere.
We overthink.
We replay conversations.
We try to predict outcomes.
Sometimes we even look to other voices to counsel us before first bringing our hearts before the Wonderful Counselor—the Holy Spirit within us—and the truth of Scripture that grounds us in Perfect Truth!
But Scripture invites us into a way of waiting that is completely opposite of the world.
We wait with anticipation, not worry.
With surrender, not control.
With trust, not the pressure to figure everything out.
“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.” — Psalm 27:14
Anticipation says:
God is moving even when I cannot yet see it.
Worry tries to carry tomorrow before it arrives.
And Scripture reminds us:
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” — Matthew 6:34
We are also reminded:
“His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” — Lamentations 3:22–23
Anticipation trusts that God already holds tomorrow in His hands.
We do not have to figure everything out.
Even though our hearts often want to.
We Wait with Hope, Not Despair
There can be moments in waiting where disappointment tries to creep in, especially when timelines stretch longer than expected!
I’ve experienced that personally in these final weeks of pregnancy.
Every sign that labor might be beginning can quickly turn into another day of waiting.
And in those moments, I’ve had to continually bring my heart back before the Lord.
Because despair says:
Nothing will ever change.
But hope says:
God is still faithful in the process.
Biblical hope is not wishful thinking.
It is confident expectation rooted in the character of God.
And just like in this current season of pregnancy, I know I will not be pregnant forever.
There is an appointed time for us to meet our baby boy.
In the same way, God sees the fullness of the timeline we cannot yet see in our everyday waiting for what we long for.
We Wait with Joy, Not Striving
One of the greatest temptations in waiting is striving.
Trying harder.
Pushing more.
Forcing outcomes that only God can fully bring forth in His timing.
And often, as soon as we start hearing:
I have to…
I need to…
If I don’t make this happen then…
Those are indicators that we need to bring our beliefs back before the Lord and receive His perspective.
That is one of the reasons Serenity Retreat exists:
To create space for God to speak into those deeper places.
This is also what is humbling about pregnancy…
At a certain point, there is very little you can do except trust the process.
You cannot force life to mature before its appointed time.
Spiritually, many things in our lives are the same way.
Some seasons of life require surrender not striving.
Joy in waiting does not mean every moment feels easy.
It does not mean happiness is always the immediate destination.
It means we trust that God is present in the process of our character refinement.
It means we learn to recognize that even here—
in the trial,
in the painful moments,
before the breakthrough,
before fulfillment,
before answers come,
before the season changes—
God is still good.
And that is a truth we can always count on. And even if you don’t believe that God is good, He can still speak to you about that very doubt, if you’re willing to listen.
When God Reshapes What We Long For
This past week, I stepped into a couple of Transformation Prayer Ministry (TPM) sessions for myself, inviting the Lord into the deeper places this waiting was exposing in my own heart. The Lord allowed me to experience His truth and my anxious or burdened heart turned into a restful heart.
And I was reminded that sometimes there are prayers we pray that God does fulfill exactly as we hoped.
And there are other times when He lovingly reshapes something within us.
Because sometimes what we long for may not yet be fully aligned with His purposes, His will, or the deeper character formation He is accomplishing within us.
God is not withholding from us when things feel delayed.
He is often aligning us more deeply with His heart, His timing, and His purposes.
An Invitation for You
If you find yourself in a season where something feels delayed—where hope feels stretched or questions feel louder than answers—you are not alone.
And more importantly, you are not abandoned in the waiting.
Because the things that surface while we wait—the fear, disappointment, striving, anxiety, discouragement, or loss of hope—are often the very places God wants to meet us most deeply.
At Serenity Retreat, this is what we make space for.
A space to slow down.
To process what is beneath the surface.
To invite God to speak truth to the root of what is happening in your heart as you wait.
Whether through a Transformation Prayer Ministry session or one of our Retreat experiences, there is an invitation to stop carrying everything alone and allow the Lord to minister directly to those deeper places within you.
So if you are in a season of waiting, perhaps the invitation is not simply to endure it—
But to encounter God within it.
To wait with anticipation, not worry.
With hope, not despair.
With joy, not striving.
Because waiting, in the hands of God, is never wasted.
He is still present.
Still speaking.
Still faithful.
And still forming something eternal within you.
