Long periods of waiting can feel like God is asleep just like the disciples must have felt when they were in the boat and the waves threatened to overtake them. You may have tried everything and prayed all the prayers you can, and God just doesn’t seem to answer or bring what you want to fruition.
What do you do in those times?
I have three suggestions:
Look for signs of God’s presence. They may be small, but I assure you that they are there. God wants to show you He is not sleeping as you wait it out. It could be through the sun shining, a delightful cup of coffee, a hug from a loved one, a little blessing on a cloudy day, or any number of things that reveal God’s love and peace to you.
Try to catch God’s voice in your daily life. God is not being silent. He is continuing to speak to you, but it may not be about what you’re asking for. Is God trying to catch your attention on a different subject? Sometimes we can be so zeroed on our agenda that we miss what he’s trying to do in another area of our life.
Go back to the basics of being a disciple. Ultimately, this is what our lives are about and this is not necessarily a time to do nothing and wait. Our vocation will be made manifest eventually, but there’s actions and things we can do to live out our call as a follower of Jesus in the here and now. As we do those, our vocation unfolds as it’s meant to.
When God seems asleep, He isn’t. He is always present to you and speaking to you. He just may be invisible to your eye and deaf to your ears because you’re narrowly focused on what you desire and the wave of life that you can’t seem to get through. Try these suggestions and see if you’re able to see and hear God in your midst, maybe in a different way than you expected.
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