I’ve often heard friends and family members say that they’re pretty sure God doesn’t listen to them anymore because they keep yelling at him about the same thing over and over again. Well, if He stopped listening to them, I’m pretty sure He stopped listening to me too.

No one likes waiting, and if you do, I’m not sure that you’re human. I don’t know a single person who likes waiting for anything. Sometimes we wait for simple things like test scores or for our crush to call us. But sometimes we wait for more serious things like surgery results or for a chronic illness to be cured. Regardless of what you’re waiting for, we live in a world that wants instant gratification. We have instant messenger, instant dinners, etc. We live in a society that is fast paced and never stops, and we often get carried away. But I think sometimes we forget that we are not of this world (John 15:19), and God will not treat his children the way the world treats them.

There are seasons of life, and everything has its season (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). But what we forget is that God is in control of every minute of every season in our life (Isaiah 49:8). If we don’t like the season we’re in, we want to fast forward to the next step, but the important thing to remember is not to run ahead of God. You don’t want to miss anything God has in store for you where you are right now. No time in any season of your life is wasted, no matter how lost or lonely you may feel. No matter how painful or never-ending the waiting is, in the end, it shapes us into who the Lord wants us to be. If we get caught up waiting for what WE asked from the Lord, we might miss blessings He’s trying to shower on us NOW. Most of the time, we figure out that what we asked the Lord for is nowhere near as wonderful as what he gives us. Waiting molds us into who the Lord intended us to be. It makes us stronger, wiser, and ultimately brings us closer to God.

No matter how much we long to please God and follow his will, sometimes the waiting can be frustrating. A person the Lord put in my life last year once told me, “Life is weird sometimes. We always picture things and imagine how they’re supposed to be, and we think we know how excited we'll be and how incredible the moments will be, but we really don't know at all. That's what makes the future so fun and so terrifying. We spend so much time envisioning and creating situations in our head that we forget we don't have control most of the time. Opportunity isn't a lengthy visitor, and neither is fear and negatives. They are but clouds that pass across the sun. They dim the light and sometimes they rain and rain and rain, but that rain never lasts forever.”

So to sum this all up and include a possibly cheesy analogy, The Lord is like your raincoat. He won't be able to block all of the rain, and you still may get wet, but He doesn’t make the decision to come off. He'll take the brunt of it and will always be there to keep you from getting soaked. So dance in the rain while you’re waiting for what you want (or what you think you want) and contrary to this article title, the Lord did not forget about you. In fact, He is working through whatever pain you’re dealing with because “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). After all, I’ve always heard that the best things come right after the storm.

A beautiful song that has inspired me is The Solider and the Oak by Elliott Park. Give it a listen if you need some encouragement.

"All my dreams....not meant to be..."