Episode 13: Waiting Well: Trusting God in the In-Between

What do you do when you've prayed, you've believed, and you're still waiting?

In this episode of Encouraged by the Word, Becca and April talk about navigating seasons of waiting and learning to trust God when we don't understand His timing.

We explore what it means to "wait on the Lord" and why biblical waiting isn't passive. It's continuing to pray, serve, grow, worship, and trust while we wait.

We talk about Joseph and the years between his dreams and their fulfillment, and we take a closer look at Daniel 10, where Daniel prayed for 21 days before receiving his answer. When the angel finally came, he told Daniel that his prayer had been heard from the very first day.

What an incredible reminder: just because we don't see an answer doesn't mean God hasn't heard us or isn't working.

In this episode, we discuss:

•  Trusting God's character when we don't understand His timing 
•  What it means to wait actively rather than passively 
•  Joseph's season of waiting 
•  Daniel's 21 days of prayer 
•  The unseen work of God 
•  Continuing to serve and grow while we wait 
•  Resisting the temptation to force God's timing 
•  Finding hope in God's faithfulness 

If you're currently in an "in-between" season, we pray this episode reminds you that God hasn't forgotten you. He hears your prayers, He is faithful, and even when you can't see what He's doing, He is still working.

📖 Psalm 27:14 — "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart."

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Back in April, that's friends on a message to encourage women through every walk of life.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

We know that life is loud, but God's word speaks louder. So if you're looking for a place to know more about this, a place for you. Join us. Let's get encouraged by the word. Welcome back to Encouraged by the Word. We're your host. I'm April. And I'm Becca. And we are so excited to be here with you all today. Today's episode is special to us because it makes our 13th episode. We have been on this journey for one year. One year. Yes. And we're so excited that you all were here with us again. Because it's our one-year anniversary of our Encouraged by the Word Episode, we have a super cute little cake here. Yes. Right. Our first episode launched August the 1st, 2025. And if you're just joining us, we encourage you to go back and listen to that first episode so you can learn more about who we are and why we started this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah, yeah. And listen to some others while you're at it. But that first episode really tells about us, why we did it, you know, why the Lord put on our heart, all of those things. So thank you for being here with us. Today we're so excited about our one-year anniversary. And today our topic is something that I think every single believer can relate to. If you've lived for God for any amount of time, you've experienced this. Today we're going to talk about what to do in that season of waiting. Okay. Like the in-between when you pray and then you're waiting on the answer. So maybe you're waiting on healing or you have in the past. Maybe you're waiting on an answer to prayer, a door to open, a relationship to be restored. Like you know that God said this relationship is supposed to be restored, but it just seems like nothing's happening. You're waiting, waiting, waiting. Or for a financial breakthrough or direction in your life, like you know you're supposed to make a job change and you're waiting to hear from the Lord. So sometimes it just feels like we're living in this space, like where God's promised something between that and then what you're actually seeing. So we're gonna talk about that today. And we're gonna talk specifically about how do we wait well. There is a way to wait well. The Lord tells us we don't have to just survive, we don't have to um suffer. We can trust God in that in-between, and you're gonna see how you can actually draw closer to Him and it's gonna be really good.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

And I think that's such an important distinction between most of us don't mind waiting if we know exactly how long it's going to take. Yeah, that's true, right? Versus when we don't know how long it's gonna take, right? And if you're waiting in line at a restaurant and they tell you your food's gonna be ready 15 minutes, go hang out outside, you know, in your car, you're fine. You're like, great, I've got 15 minutes, I'll relax. Yeah. But if someone says, well, we're not really sure how long it's gonna take or when it's gonna be ready, then you get amped up. Yeah, yeah. Wait, what do you need? Yeah, yeah. And spiritually, that's often where we find ourselves. We know that God is faithful, we know that his promises are true, but we all we don't always know his timeline. Yeah, and that's when we as humans get a little, you know, shaky in our faith. And honestly, that's where our faith gets stretched, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Yeah, which is actually a good thing. Yes, yes. So one thing that we were discovering while we were studying this topic is that the Bible's definition of waiting is completely different from our human perspective of it. Like when you think of waiting, I picture, I don't know about you, but I picture sitting in a waiting room, right? You're waiting, you're not doing anything, you're not like actively doing anything while you're sitting there. You're hoping your name gets called. You know, sometimes you're like, geez, I've been here so long. Are they ever gonna call me? But that's not the picture of what we're talking about when we hear the word wait. The Hebrew word for wait is kava, and it actually means to hope expectantly. So it carries the picture. This word kava actually carries the picture of like strands of rope being twisted together until they become stronger. I love that. I love that picture because biblical waiting isn't sitting still, it's not sitting in that waiting room, sitting still, doing nothing. It's actually this kava, it's becoming more closely connected to God. It's drawing nearer to Him while we wait. And that's exactly what Isaiah 40 40 31 says. I'm gonna read that. It says, Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. So I want you to notice something about this. It doesn't say that they'll lose their strength when they wait on the Lord. It actually says they'll renew their strength. So I want to talk to you for a second about eagles. I grew up in Alaska and we saw eagles all the time. They're beautiful, they're big, but you know that eagles they soar on the current of the air without flapping their wings. So when there's a storm coming, most birds will hide or they will take shelter, but not an eagle. It actually flies towards the storm, towards the high winds. It locks its wings in place and then it allows the pressure of the storm to push it above. And it goes into the calm sky. It allows that pressure to pull it up into the calm sky. So, you know, God strengthens people who continue trusting him. And I love this. God will replace our strength with his strength.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

That's really good, Becca. And if we think about it like that, that really changes the way we think about waiting. You know, what's happening in that time? Waiting isn't wasted time. That's true. Yeah. Sometimes we think life can't really begin until that prayer gets answered, you know, until I get that new car, you know. I'll have joy when I get this promotion. I'll serve when I feel confident enough. I'll have peace when my finances look the way I want them to look. Yeah. But what God wants to experience, He wants us to be in His presence. He wants us to be right where we are because He knows that in that moment of waiting, we are going to gain strength in Him. Waiting doesn't put our relationship on pause with Him, right? Sometimes that's actually when our relationship grows and gets deeper. Think about it in like your worst moments of life. You're like, am I running to God or am I running away from Him?

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Yeah, that's good. I mean, that's that rope being, you know, braided together. Yes. And waiting, it's not changing who God is. God is not ever going to change. He is who He is, but it reveals what's already in us. You know, it's easy to trust God when everything's happening the way we hope. We've talked about this in previous episodes. You know, we can be happy, everything's great.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

It's much harder when it seems like nothing is changing. But that's when we have to draw in closer than ever. You know, sometimes when that happens and we're in that waiting period, we start asking questions like, you know, did I really hear God? Right. I really thought he told me that, but did I really? Or did he forget me? Right. Is God still working? Like, did he move on to the next person? But you know what? He's big enough to take care of all of our needs all at once. And Proverbs 3:5 tells us, trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. It's gonna go so much better when you trust in him. He can do things so much better than we can. And you know, I love this phrase: fear uh trust waits and fear rushes. We don't always understand his timing, but we can always trust his character. This word tells us who he is and tells us his character, and it never changes. Forever and all eternity, he is who he says he is.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Yeah, and I think it's important to say something here, Becca. Sometimes people assume that if they're waiting, they must have done something wrong. They don't get that instant miracle, they don't get that instant answered prayer that maybe it's something they did, or maybe God's punishing them for something they've done in the past. That's right. Yeah, I think that's a good thing. But that's not what scripture teaches us, right? We live in a fallen world. We live in a dark, evil world. There's going to be disappointments, there's going to be delays. Those things, you know, we don't know they're gonna happen. Some things we never will never understand. And we're not meant to understand, right? But God is faithful in every season. And if we know him for who he is and his character, we can trust that he's not going to abandon us in those moments of waiting. He's walking with us through it, he's carrying us, he's capturing those tears as um and as prayers, you know. And that changes everything, you know, in those moments of waiting and our thoughts and our feelings about what's gonna happen after we wait.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

That's really good. Yeah. I like to use Joseph as an example of this because we know God gave him dreams. He he saw this, he knew there were big things coming, but then it was like everything that happened after those dreams looked like the opposite, right? So I see this. This is what I'm supposed to attain, but it's like he's going backwards, you know. His brothers betrayed him. Not bad. Yeah, he was sold into slavery. What else happened? He was falsely accused. Yeah. Um, he spent years in prison after that, you know, and none of those things looked like God was really fulfilling that promise. It didn't look like he was going in the right direction, it didn't look like God was there with him. But there's one phrase that keeps showing up in Genesis that I want you to remember. And it says, The Lord was with Joseph. Yeah, such a simple phrase, but replace that with your name. The Lord is with Becca, the Lord is with April. You know, I love that. His circumstances changed over and over again. It went from bad to worse, and you know, it just didn't look like there was any hope in it getting better. But God's presence never changed. He was in that prison with him, he was in that um that pit with him. And eventually, what others, the brothers, the the um Potiphar's wife, all the people that intended evil on him, guess what happened? God used that for good. Like the eagle, he soared above that. Yeah, and scripture doesn't say that God caused that evil, you know? People made sinful choices, but it was God who redeemed what those people meant to destroy, and he always will. And that gives me so much hope because it reminds me that God can bring beauty out of broken situations. We've all experienced broken situations. I don't care who you are, you've had hard situations in your life, and God can bring beauty out of that, and he will, he always will.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, sometimes you don't even have to look that far back to see like the beauty that he brought out of a situation.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Yeah, and Becca, that's a good reminder because sometimes we think if God is with us, that life should get easy. You know, you think, Oh, being with Christ, you know, life should be good now, right? But it's not always like that. No. Uh Joseph proves that God's presence doesn't always mean immediate deliverance. You know, he went through a lot of things, God never even told him what's gonna happen. Yeah, sometimes his presence is what carries us until that deliverance comes. Yeah, you know, his peace, his hope is joy, and that confidence in him that carries us into that next moment or into that miracle. Joseph's story reminds us that just because we don't see God working doesn't mean he isn't. That's true. And that makes me think of another incredible story in Scripture, Becca. Oh, Daniel.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

I love this. And I always think about this when you think about the waiting, you know, because it really gives us a glimpse into something that maybe we don't think about. There is an unseen realm around us. You know, we we look at the physical and what we can see, but there is a spiritual realm all around us that we can't see. And in Daniel chapter 10, Daniel had been praying, he'd been seeking God, he'd been fasting, it says, for 21 days. And I want you to pay attention to that because it says he was fasting for the whole 21 days. Can you imagine? 21 days, and he didn't hear anything. So he prayed, he's fasting 21 days, he doesn't hear a word. And if we're honest, April, like we've all had those moments, right? We've wondered, like, God, hello, are you hearing me? Yeah, do you know what I'm walking through? Did you see this? Can you come on? But in the story in Daniel chapter 10, it says that the angel finally appeared to Daniel, and what he said is so encouraging. Okay, it so I'm gonna read it to you. It says, Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and you humbled yourself before your God, listen to this, your words were heard. Yeah, and I have come because of your words. Faith-filled words will dominate this situation. We have to speak faith-filled words. We have to continue to pray. I love those words from the first day your words were heard. Remember that. You know, think about that when you pray. Think, you know what? The first day God heard my words. God didn't hear Daniel on day 21. You know, he didn't have to like, oh, I have to pray really, really hard for 21 days, and at some point he'll hear me. No, he heard him on day one. And the answer wasn't delayed because God wasn't listening. It's never that God's not listening, he's always there, he's always hearing us, he loves us so much, and he really truly wants the best for us. The angel explains in Daniel chapter 10 that he was delayed because of spiritual oppression. Okay, so that's not always the case. Um, he was fighting a spiritual warfare in this unseen, unseen realm that we can't see. And I don't want you to assume because of that that every single delayed prayer means that there's spiritual warfare. That's not what scripture teaches us. There are many reasons why, you know, it may take a while for a prayer to get answered, and it's always because God has our best interest at heart. But what this story does teach us is that there's often a lot more happening than what we can actually see with our physical eyes. God's always working in ways that are um are are best for us, and sometimes they're hidden for us for a reason. You know?

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Yeah, that's really good. I think that's an encouraging thought, Becca. So many times we pray for something, and because we don't immediately see results, we assume that nothing is happening. And that's either gonna make us make our own decision, take control over the situation, and do what we want to do, or continue to wait. Yeah. And Daniel reminds us that that's always that's not always true. There may be things taking place in the spiritual realm that we know nothing about. Yeah, right? That's true. So trusting that God has the bigger picture, he knows the bigger picture, and that he knows best for us. We just rest in those promises and wait for him. Right? There's a lot of things that could be happening, you know, during that time. There's people that he could be working on, there's doors that need to be opened that we just need to wait until they open. There may be circumstances that he's put into place, and there might be some things that he wants to do in our heart, some things that we don't even know need to be worked out that he gets to work out through in that time. Yeah. But just because we don't see that he's not working, just because we don't see that the miracle not happening doesn't mean that God isn't working, right? Yeah. We have to just trust that he knows best and it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yeah, we really want that, we really want to get that through to you. That just because we can't see it, he's still working. And one of the b biggest lessons that we can learn from Daniel is that he didn't quit praying. That's why I really wanted you to see how it said he fasted for 21 days. He didn't stop because he didn't see immediate results. You know, he stayed faithful, he continued seeking God. He didn't know what was happening behind the scenes, he didn't find that out until after the prayer was answered. Right. But God did. God saw the big picture, and that encourages me because sometimes I don't need to know how God is working. You know, I don't need to know what's going on behind the scenes, who he's who he's working on. Honestly, it would probably scare me if I saw the whole big picture, right? I just need to know that he is working, and his word assures us that he hears us. His word assures us that he cares for us, that he loves us, that he wants the best for us. Um, in John 5.14, it says, now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. His will, his word right here is his will. This is his last will and testament to us. And if we align what we say up with this word, then we can we can be confident that we'll receive what what we ask. And we just have to continue to trust him, continue to trust the one who created the universe, who created us, who knows every little part of us. And um that's what we have to do. We can't give up, we can't stop praying.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

All right, so we're gonna transition here. Let's talk about a few things. What do we actually do while we're waiting? Okay, we kind of need to know that. We're gonna do nothing, or we can do some practical things that would draw us closer to God. Yeah, we can keep serving. David continued to tend to the sheep. Yeah, Joseph kept serving in prison. Yeah, Ruth kept gleaning, right? They didn't put their lives on hold waiting for the promise, and we don't want to do that either, right? But they stayed faithful right where God had them. They continued to use those gifts that he gave them in their everyday life. I think that's something we need to focus on until the next thing happens. We need to continue serving using those gifts that he's put into us. We don't want to miss any opportunity to get to serve God every day, right? Faithfulness today prepares us for tomorrow. Okay, so just keep that in mind. Staying faithful today is gonna prepare you for tomorrow. Another thing that we can do is pray. One of the most important things, bring our requests to God, pour our hearts out to God. That's what Hannah did, right? Yeah, we can be transparent with him. He knows anyway. That's true. Yeah, right. Um, Hannah didn't pretend like everything was okay. We don't need to do that either. We can be free and we can just come to God as we are. And God invites us to bring up those disappointments, those questions, those hopes and those fears to him, right? He knows that doing that's only gonna bring us closer to him and establish that relationship that he desperately wants. The third thing that we can do is continue to grow. Use that season and that time to grow in him, spend time in his word, read devotionals, increase your prayer life. You can serve in your church. One of the best things that you can do is encourage someone else who may be going through a difficult season. Those things are never wasted. Those things are never ever wasted as we're continuing to be strengthened in the word and to grow closer and closer to the Father.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

That's good. You know, April, I think one other thing, we also have to resist the temptation to force things to happen on our own, like with our own strength. Right. Because sometimes when we're tired of waiting, we try to open doors, and those are doors that God hasn't opened, and he hasn't opened them for a reason. You know, you think about Abraham and Sarah. They tried to help God out a little bit when he told them that they were gonna have a baby. Right, you know, she gave him her handmaiden, and um that produced an Ishmael, and that caused a lot of problems. They created their own solution, they didn't wait on God's timing, and that decision had a lot of consequences, you know. That if you look back in history, it caused a lot of problems. So waiting can be uncomfortable, but trusting God is always safer. Yes, it's always safer than trying to rush out ahead of Him. I love this saying. Um, it says, if the devil can't get in front of you and stop you, he'll get behind you and he'll push you too fast. So that's exactly what happened with Abraham and Sarah. You know, if they went too fast, they got out ahead of ahead of God. When God had the perfect one for them, they produced an Ishmael. And, you know, that's what we can do. We can produce an Ishmael in our lives if we try to make it happen outside of what God has.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

One of my favorite illustrations is thinking about a seed, okay? I don't garden, but I can think about this illustration. I like them, I'm just not very good at it. Right. When you plant a seed, nothing appears to grow above the ground for a while, right? Yeah. And if you judge by what you could see, you think that nothing was gonna happen, nothing was gonna be produced, right? It'd just be a total waste of time and everything. But underneath the surface, the roots are growing. There's something big happening underneath that we can't see. The unseen work is just as important as the visible growth. That's right. Yeah. Sometimes that's exactly what God is doing. A lot of things happening beside behind the scene that we don't know anything about. Yeah. We can't see anything changing, but we have to know that he is working in ways that we can't see. Yeah, his timing is perfect, even when it doesn't match ours. You know, and I think just knowing his character and who he is, it helps us to understand, like, yeah, it's gonna be good afterwards. You know, we can just trust and rest in that. So if you're listening today and you're in an in-between season, we want to encourage you as we're encouraging ourselves. Yeah, don't mistake waiting for abandonment. I know it could feel like that. You could think God's not hearing you, but don't mistake waiting for abandonment. That's good. God has not forgotten about you. His word says that he'll never leave you, he'll never forsake you. Yeah, and he hasn't misplaced your prayers. He heard them the very first moment you spoke it. He heard it. And believe this, he is not surprised by your situation. That's true. Yeah. Trust that he is faithful and he will be until the very end, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, that's good. Um, Psalm 27, 14. I'm gonna read that. It says, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. And then it says, Wait, I say, on the Lord. So notice that promise. As we wait, he strengthens us. Yes. So that's not necessarily by giving us every answer immediately, right? That's what we want, but he knows the best for us. So during that waiting time, what strengthens us is that he's giving us himself.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

So good.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

And ultimately, his presence is what's gonna carry us through that season. When you get off your prayers, when you give up, when you you're you're uh you're abandoning that relationship with him. You don't want to do that. You want his presence. So if you're waiting today, keep trusting, keep praying, keep serving, keep worshiping, keep encouraging others. Just um um crave that relationship with him during that time, you know? He's still working, even when you can't see it, he is still working, he never leaves us or forsakes us. So we're gonna pray with you. Lord, we thank you so much for this time in your words. Lord, we love your word, we love you so much, and we just thank you, Lord, that you have our best interests, Lord. You want the best for us, and we thank you that when we pray, you hear our prayer right away, Lord, and that you're working things out for the best for us. And sometimes, Lord, if the answer is no, it's because you know what we need and you know what's best for us. And we just thank you that during those times of waiting, we draw closer to you. We read our word, we pray, we just spend more time growing stronger so that we can soar above those storms and that we can be strengthened. And we praise you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Amen. Amen. Such a good episode. This was so, so good. Listen, we're coming to the end of our episode. Um, but we want you to just remember this. You can do well, you can live well, you can serve well, you can do all the things well you want to do in the waiting. Don't let that moment of life just be empty. Fill it with something good. You can do it. We know you can do it, and we're excited about it. So thank you all for joining us. Remember to like our episode, share with someone you love, you care about, um, and join us on our next episode. Okay? We're so happy and excited. We know there's nothing but goodness and greatness coming your way. And uh, we love you guys. We're so appreciative of you, and we hope that you all are continually encouraged by the word. Now we're gonna go eat our cake. Yay! Bye.