Faith Through the Long Season
“The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.” – Lamentations 3:25-26
You know that feeling when you’re sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, knowing the results of your test will change everything? Your stomach churns, your mind races through possibilities, and time seems to crawl. Some people pace. Others scroll their phones frantically. A few sit perfectly still, hands folded, breathing slowly.
The Bible calls God’s people to a lifetime of waiting—waiting for justice, waiting for healing, waiting for Christ’s return. But Scripture doesn’t just tell us to wait; it shows us how to wait. The biblical writers discovered something remarkable: waiting can become worship when we learn to pour out both our trust and our troubles before God.
From the psalmists to the prophets, from Jesus to Paul, we find a consistent pattern of worshipping while we wait. This isn’t about passive resignation or forced optimism. It’s about active faith that engages both heart and mind during the long seasons when God feels silent and circumstances look hopeless.
Learning to Wait Well
Psalm 37:1-9
David writes Psalm 37 as an old man who has watched entire lifetimes unfold. He has seen the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, yet his counsel is remarkably practical: “Fret not.” The Hebrew word suggests anxious worry that leads to anger and rash action. David offers an alternative—a series of worship practices that sustain faith during the wait.
“Trust in the LORD, and do good.” Notice the pairing. Trust isn’t just a feeling; it produces action. While we wait for God’s justice, we keep doing what’s right. “Delight thyself also in the LORD.” This suggests finding pleasure in God himself, not just in what he might do for us. David learned that worship during waiting means choosing joy in God’s character when his circumstances don’t spark joy at all.
The psalm acknowledges our natural tendency to “fret” when evil seems to triumph. David doesn’t shame us for these feelings; instead, he redirects them toward worship practices that shape our hearts during the long wait.
When Everything Falls Apart
Lamentations 1:1-6
Jerusalem lies in ruins. The temple is destroyed. God’s people are scattered in exile. The writer of Lamentations doesn’t offer cheerful platitudes or quick fixes. Instead, he models how to worship when everything you believed about God’s protection has crumbled.
“The LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.” Here’s worship in its rawest form—honest acknowledgment of God’s justice even when it hurts. The lament doesn’t question whether God is good; it wrestles with how God’s goodness operates in a world broken by sin.
Notice the imagery: Jerusalem sits like a widow, weeping through the night with no one to comfort her. This isn’t pretty worship with perfect harmonies. This is the worship of the emergency room, the divorce papers, the pink slip. Sometimes worship while we wait means simply refusing to let go of God when every reasonable person would understand if we did.
Questioning God’s Plan
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Habakkuk takes biblical lament to its boldest extreme. He essentially asks God, “What are you thinking?” Violence fills the land, justice is perverted, and God seems to be doing nothing about it. But notice Habakkuk’s approach: he brings his complaint directly to God rather than abandoning faith altogether.
“I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower.” This is active waiting. Habakkuk positions himself to hear from God, even after voicing his frustration. God’s response introduces one of Scripture’s most important principles: “The just shall live by his faith.” Paul later builds his entire theology of justification on this verse.
God tells Habakkuk to write down the vision because “though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come.” Worship while we wait sometimes means standing guard at our post, watching expectantly for God to move, even when we don’t understand his timing or methods.
Faith and Faithful Service
Luke 17:5-10
The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith, probably expecting a spiritual pep talk about believing bigger things. Instead, Jesus teaches them about the nature of faith during the waiting period before God’s kingdom comes in fullness.
“If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root.” Jesus uses hyperbole to make a point: faith isn’t about the size of our feelings but about the reliability of its object. Even tiny faith can accomplish the impossible when it rests in God’s power.
Then Jesus shifts to a parable about servants who work all day and still prepare their master’s dinner without expecting special praise. “We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” This is worship during the wait—faithful service without keeping score, obedience without demanding immediate rewards. Jesus models this perfectly, serving faithfully all the way to the cross while waiting for his Father’s vindication.
The Wait Is Over
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Paul writes to Timothy from prison, facing likely execution. Yet his letter overflows with confidence because the long wait of God’s people has reached its climax. “That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.”
The apostle traces God’s plan from eternity past to present reality: the grace “given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” has now been “made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
Paul’s suffering now takes on new meaning. He’s not just waiting for God to act; he’s participating in the gospel that reveals what God has already accomplished. The Old Testament saints waited for the Messiah’s first coming. Paul waits for the second coming, but now he waits with resurrection power and the indwelling Spirit. The game has changed.
The Song of Those Who Wait
Lamentations 3:19-26
Here is the anthem of everyone who has learned to worship while they wait. “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” The writer doesn’t ignore his suffering—”the wormwood and the gall”—but he deliberately chooses to remember God’s faithfulness.
“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” This becomes the perfect song for the “already not yet” tension of Christian life. We have tasted God’s salvation in Christ, but we still wait for its complete fulfillment. Every morning brings fresh mercy for another day of faithful waiting.
“The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.” The waiting itself becomes a form of seeking, and the seeking becomes worship. We discover that God is good not just when he gives us what we want, but in the very act of waiting for him.
Conclusion: Following Jesus in the Wait
Jesus models perfect worship while waiting. In the wilderness, he worships through temptation by clinging to Scripture. In Gethsemane, he pours out his agony while submitting to the Father’s will. On the cross, he entrusts himself to the one who judges justly while experiencing abandonment.
Following Jesus means learning to worship through our own seasons of waiting. When justice seems delayed, we trust and do good like the psalmist. When everything falls apart, we bring our honest grief to God like Jeremiah. When God’s plans confuse us, we keep watching for his word like Habakkuk. We serve faithfully without keeping score like the disciples Jesus taught. We hold fast to the gospel treasure like Timothy, knowing that what we wait for has already been accomplished at the cross and will be fully revealed when Christ returns.
The waiting isn’t wasted time. It’s the space where worship becomes authentic, where faith becomes real, where we learn that God himself is better than anything we’re waiting for him to do.
Points to Ponder
- What am I currently waiting for God to do in my life? How can I worship while I wait?
- Which biblical model of waiting resonates most with my current season—David’s trust, Jeremiah’s grief, Habakkuk’s questions, or Paul’s confidence?
- How does remembering what God has already accomplished in Christ change the way I wait for what’s still to come?
- What would it look like for me to “serve without keeping score” in my current circumstances?
- How can I cultivate the daily practice of recalling God’s mercies that are “new every morning”?
Prayer
Father, you have called us to a lifetime of waiting, and we confess that we don’t always wait well. We fret when you seem silent. We despair when circumstances overwhelm us. We demand explanations for your timing and methods.
Teach us to worship while we wait. When our hearts want to panic, help us trust and do good. When everything falls apart, help us bring our honest grief to you. When your plans confuse us, help us keep watching expectantly for your word. Help us serve faithfully without keeping score.
Thank you that our waiting has meaning because of what Christ has already accomplished. The cross assures us that you are working even when we can’t see it. The resurrection promises that you will complete what you have begun.
Fill us with your Spirit so that our waiting becomes worship, our questions become prayers, and our service becomes joy. Help us remember that your mercies are new every morning, and your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
“And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” – Habakkuk 2:2-3
Josh Cehulik 
Love this! Thank you!
Kathy McFarlin
Sent from my iPhone
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