In her Beckoning series, Taylor Beckworth shares encouragements, advice and straight talk from her journey and the experience of others as she draws near to the beckoning of The Lord. –Philippians 3:12-14 MSG

Don’t waste time during the waiting

“For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” Habakkuk 2:3

If you go to Fresno Christian you’ve probably seen me reading a book with the word LIVE on it. Someone who has really impacted my life with just one book is Sadie Robertson. What to do during your waiting season is something she dives into in depth, and it really puts things into perspective for me. What to do until your story gets good. 

You might be waiting for God to answer your prayer, waiting for that circumstance to change, or even just wanting life to move. You feel like you’ve been at a certain point in your life since you were super young, I get it. You see others who are doing so good, God has answered all their prayers, but what about me? God doesn’t always answer your prayers when you want them answered because He wants you to be in this season. A season of waiting. 

“Don’t get me wrong: In fact, I want to tell you how not to waste the waits and how to go through waiting seasons and come out better than you were when you went into them.”-Sadie Robertson

Now to get to the point. What do you do and not do when you’re in this spot?

What to not do                                                                                                                   

* Compare others successes to your own

* Tell yourself God doesn’t care about you 

* Spend your time doing things that won’t benefit you

* Hang out with the wrong people 

What to do

* Spend your time diving into the word 

* Hangout with people who push you closer to God 

* Read books 

* Journal 

While you’re in this season, dig deeper in God’s word, get out, read books! Those things have helped me tremendously. 

I have to keep reminding myself not to get discouraged when things don’t go my way. I know God is preparing something amazing that’s going to change my life. He’s doing this for you as well.

Someone very close to my heart, Annabelle Counts, ’23, shares her experience through her time of waiting. Her personal journey helped me through my season, and it may help you.

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“During my life, I’ve realized when God doesn’t answer prayers, it’s still an answered prayer, ” Counts said. “When I ask God for something I’ve truly been wanting, but he doesn’t answer that prayer, I know I don’t need it at that moment, but maybe later in the future.”

In addition, Counts discusses how her support system helped her throughout her journey.

“My friends and family have had such an impact on my life, and they led me closer to Christ.” Counts said, “I truly recommend hanging out with Godly people to help you through this journey.”

Analogy: When it comes to baking, we turn up the oven to 315 degrees and put in the cookies for 30 minutes and they come out perfect! But we want to rush things so we turn up the oven to 430 degrees and bake them for 10 minutes, then they come out terrible. The same goes for our relationship with God, if we just wait patiently, things will come out a lot better than if we tried to manipulate the outcome.

I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.

Philippians 3:12-14 MSG