08/13/2026
🚨ARE YOU IN A SEASON OF WAITING??? Read this👇
Waiting on the Lord can be one of the hardest forms of faith—especially when you’re not waiting for something you merely want, but something you genuinely believe God has spoken or promised.
And I think there is a particular kind of pain in this for pastors/pastors’ wives and people in ministry. You spend years pouring out, praying for others, celebrating their breakthroughs, standing beside people when their prayers are answered—and sometimes quietly wondering, “Lord, when will it be our turn?”
Waiting on God is not the same as doing nothing
Isaiah 40:31 says:
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength…”
Biblical waiting is active trust. It is continuing to obey God without requiring evidence that the promise is getting closer.
That is difficult because we naturally look for progress. We think, Surely something should be happening by now.
But God often does some of His deepest work in the space between “I promised” and “I fulfilled it.”
Abraham had a promise before he had Isaac.
Joseph had a dream before he had a palace—and between the two were betrayal, slavery, false accusation, and prison.
David was anointed king and then went back to tending sheep. Later, he found himself hiding in caves from the very king whose throne God had promised him.
The promise was true even when their circumstances appeared to contradict it.
And that's where waiting becomes worship.
But what do we do with the hurt?
I don't think God asks us to pretend it doesn't hurt.
There is a difference between bitterness and lament.
Bitterness says, “God has failed me.”
Lament says, “God, I don't understand what You're doing, and this hurts terribly—but I'm bringing my hurt to You because I still believe You're God.”
Look at the Psalms. David repeatedly asks God, “How long?”
“How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever?” (Psalm 13:1)
That's an incredibly honest prayer.
Sometimes we think faith means never asking, “God, where are You?” But Scripture shows us otherwise. Faith can cry. Faith can be disappointed. Faith can admit, “Lord, I'm tired of waiting.”
The important thing is where we take those feelings.
Take them to God instead of allowing them to quietly build a wall between you and God.
Especially for the pastor's wife…
There is another layer here.
Sometimes you have to stand in church and encourage everybody else while carrying your own unanswered prayers.
You pray for someone else's child while you're waiting on God concerning yours.
You celebrate someone else's financial breakthrough while your family is sacrificing for ministry.
You encourage someone that God hasn't forgotten them while somewhere deep inside you're asking, “Lord…have You forgotten me?”
And because you're “the pastor's wife,” you can feel as though you're not allowed to struggle.
But ministry doesn't exempt us from the wilderness.
Sometimes it leads us straight through one.
And one of the dangers for people who continually pour out is that unprocessed disappointment can eventually become resentment toward the very God we're serving.
So we have to learn to tell Him the truth.
“Lord, I'm disappointed.”
“I'm tired.”
“I thought this would have happened by now.”
“I'm struggling watching other people receive what I've prayed about for years.”
“I'm afraid to hope again because hoping hurts.”
Those aren't necessarily faithless prayers.
Sometimes they are the beginning of healing.
So how do we wait with patience, trust, and joy?
We stop making the promise the source of our joy.
God Himself has to become the treasure again.
Because there is a subtle danger in waiting for a promise: eventually we can become so focused on what God said He would do that we lose our delight in who God is.
Our prayer slowly becomes:
“God, when are You going to do it?”
instead of:
“God, even here, I want You.”
Habakkuk reached that place:
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines… Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
—Habakkuk 3:17–18
Notice that nothing had changed yet.
The circumstances weren't joyful. His God was.
Perhaps one of the greatest miracles of the waiting season isn't simply receiving the promise.
It's becoming the person who can carry it without the promise carrying us.
And there comes a beautiful place in our walk with God where we can say:
“Lord, I still want it.
I still believe You.
I still pray about it.
But I refuse to spend this season miserable because it hasn't happened yet.
I will live now.
I will serve now.
I will laugh now.
I will worship now.
I will enjoy the people You've given me now.
I will thank You for what is already in my hands.
And when the promise comes, I'll praise You.
But until it comes, I'll praise You here too.”
Woman of God, you are seen, chosen, and loved by the God who called you and your assignment is sure.
I love each and every one of you!
-Tina Pack
Empowered women’s ministries director- PCG southeastern District 
