The Holy Work of Waiting

October 19, 2026 | When Hope Comes Home — An Eight-Week Journey Toward Advent

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” — Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

Wait, wait, wait, wait. We hate waiting. Let’s just admit that we aren’t very good at waiting on anything. And our technology is partly to blame. We order something online and we have it on our front porch tomorrow. We send a text message halfway across the country and wonder what’s wrong if we don’t get an answer in thirty seconds.

I even get impatient waiting for my coffee to heat up in the microwave! And don’t get me started on the frustration of waiting in line at the grocery store.

Unfortunately, impatience has followed us into the church. We launch a new outreach and expect to see results in just a few weeks. We start a new discipleship initiative and wonder why our congregations aren’t becoming mature followers of Christ overnight. We introduce a new vision for the congregation and then get discouraged when everyone doesn’t get excited about it immediately (remember how many months you prayed and planned?).

Here’s what I’ve learned as I’ve led congregations and coached churches into renewal—God is rarely in as much of a hurry as we are.

And sometimes the most important work He does in our lives happens while we are waiting.

Waiting Isn’t Wasted Time

In last week’s article, we looked at how God’s silence doesn’t mean He’s absent. Specifically, we looked at Habakkuk and the long years of waiting between the Old and New Testaments.

This week we go a little deeper into that theme.

Let’s take a look at what the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 40:

The everlasting God, the Lord,

The Creator of the ends of the earth,

Neither faints nor is weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the weak,

And to those who have no might He increases strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall,

31 But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint. - NKJV

 God’s people had been through a lot of difficulty and it had left them weary and discourage. It was probably natural for them to wonder if God had forgotten them.

Isaiah reminds them that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn’t grow tired or weary. His understanding is beyond our comprehension.

Did you catch the great promise? “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength”

Waiting on God isn’t as simple as watching the clock until something happens. It’s placing our confidence in the character and promise of God. It’s trusting Him enough to remain faithful when we don’t understand His timing.

And I want you to notice something else in our text. He says we will soar like eagles, run without growing weary and walk without fainting. Isn’t that a great visual?

We love the idea of soaring. We enjoy those seasons of life when everything seems to be going great, when ministry is flourishing, and when God’s presence is palpable.

Running isn’t bad either. There are times in ministry when the work is exciting and we feel like we’re making progress. But that’s not been the norm for me. Most of life and ministry has been spent walking.

One step, one Sunday at a time.

One conversation, one act of faithfulness after another.

And sometimes the greatest evidence of God’s sustaining grace isn’t that we’re soaring above our circumstances. It’s that we’re still walking through them.

Disciple-Making Takes Time

There’s a lot of subtle pressure on smaller churches today to measure success by how quickly the church is growing (maybe it isn’t always subtle).

But I want you to think about how Jesus made disciples. He didn’t gather twelve men, conduct a weekend seminar, issue them a certificate of completion and then send them out as fully mature spiritual leaders.

He walked with them. He ate with them. He answered their questions, corrected their misunderstandings, challenged their assumptions, and demonstrated what life in the Kingdom of God looked like.

And even after three years those guys still had a lot to learn!

Peter could make a bold declaration of faith one minute and completely blow it the next.

Thomas struggled with doubt. James and John wrestled with ambition. You’d think Jesus would roll His eyes and give up, but He kept on investing in them. Why?

Because discipleship isn’t an event. It’s a relationship.

It’s the patient work of helping people become more like Jesus one day at a time. I want to encourage you if you’re a pastor or church leader to stop thinking about disciple-making as another program. Disciples are formed through relationships, through study of God’s Word, through prayer, through serving others, and through the daily spiritual disciplines of following Christ.

And that kind of transformation doesn’t happen overnight.

You probably can think of someone who has been growing in faith that at one time was reluctant to pray aloud, but today they can lead a prayer during worship. Maybe they were the person that used to sit quietly in the back pew, and now you find them serving neighbors in need.

Those things may never appear in your annual report, but they are evidence of the Holy Spirit at work. And that is worth celebrating!

We aren’t called to manufacture mature disciples. We’re called to faithfully participate in the work of making them.

God is the One who brings the growth.

Church Renewal Is More Like Gardening Than Construction

Here’s how imagine it when I work with churches seeking renewal and their One Excellent Mission.

When you build a house, you can develop a construction schedule. You know when the foundation should be poured, the walls constructed, the roof installed. There may be delays, but the process is still pretty predictable.

Growing a garden is different.

You can prepare the soil, plant good seed, water, fertilize and pull weeds. But you cannot make a tomato ripen by standing over it demanding that it grow faster. You have to respect the process.

Church renewal is more like gardening than construction.

As pastors and church leaders, we can help our congregations discover their One Excellent Mission. We can nurture healthier relationships, equip our leaders, simplify our ministries, and encourage our people to be more intentional about hospitality and making disciples. But we cannot force spiritual renewal.

Yes, we can do our part in creating an environment where growth is encouraged, but only God can bring spiritual life. The Apostle Paul understood this when he wrote:

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. – 1 Corinthians 3:6 NKJV

Notice that Paul and Apollos weren’t sitting around doing nothing. One planted. The other watered. They were actively participating in God’s work.

They understood the difference between their responsibility and God’s.

And that’s a distinction every pastor needs to remember.

Faithful waiting is not an excuse for doing nothing. It’s the willingness to do what God has called us to do while trusting Him with what only He can accomplish.

Don’t Confuse Patience with Resignation

There’s something else we need to cover here.

Some churches I’ve worked with have confused waiting on God with simply accepting things the way they are. They’ve seen attendance decline in recent years. Some of their previous ministries have disappeared. Little by little, they have become disconnected from their communities. And, somewhere along the way they’ve stopped expecting anything to change.

I hear them say things like, “We’re just waiting to see what the Lord does.”

But waiting on God should never become a spiritual-sounding excuse for doing what we know He’s called us to do. A smaller size is not a pass on the Great Commission.

Jesus didn’t tell his followers to sit in the upper room indefinitely and hope the world would somehow figure it all out. He commissioned them and us to go and make disciples.

The mission hasn’t changed.

If your church is struggling to connect with its community, waiting faithfully might mean taking the initiative to build new relationships.

If your congregation has gradually become inwardly focused, it might mean helping the rediscover the joy of serving others.

If your church has lost its sense of purpose, it might mean gathering a few faithful leaders around the table and asking, “What is the one excellent mission God is calling us to accomplish in our community?”

It may not happen overnight, and you might even face some pushbacks, but you may discover that some things need to change. Just don’t mistake the absence of quick results for permission to stop trying.

Patience says, “I trust God enough to keep moving forward.”

What Is God Growing in You?

Before I wrap up, let me turn the question around.

We’ve talked about waiting on God to do His work in our churches.

But what if some of the most important work God is doing right now is happening in you?

That’s probably not what you want to hear.

We’d rather see God change the circumstances around us than discover He’s using those circumstances to change something in us. But our waiting season could become our classroom.

God teaches us patience when we’d rather have progress.

He teaches us humility when we’d rather have progress.

He teaches us humility when we’d rather receive recognition.

He teaches us dependence when we’d rather have control.

And He teaches us perseverance when we’d rather see immediate results.

Listen to what David wrote:

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. – Psalm 27:13-14 NIV

David wasn’t encouraging passive resignation. He was calling us to courageous trust in God. Be strong. Take heart. Wait for the Lord.

Waiting on God isn’t always easy. Sometimes it takes more courage to remain faithful in a long season of uncertainty than it does to take one dramatic step of faith. And sometimes the person God is preparing through the waiting is the very person who is praying for something to happen.

Advent Is a Season of Active Waiting

As we continue our journey toward Advent, I want you to remember something.

The people who waited for the coming Messiah weren’t all sitting around doing nothing. There were faithful people who continued worshipping, praying, teaching their children the Scriptures, and trusting God’s promises.

We read about Simeon and Anna in Luke chapter 2. Both of them had spent years looking forward to God’s promised redemption. And when Mary and Joseph brough the infant Jesus to the temple, these two faithful servants recognized something extraordinary.

The hope they had longed for had arrived. Their waiting had not been wasted.

And neither is yours.

Pastor, I don’t know what it is that you’re waiting for. Maybe you’ve been praying for renewal in our congregation. Maybe you’ve been waiting on a relationship to be restored, for a ministry opportunity to open up, or for someone you’ve been discipling to take the next step of faith.

Perhaps you’re simply asking God for enough strength to keep going.

Whatever the situation, may I encourage you?

Don’t stop planting.

Don’t stop watering.

Don’t stop loving people.

Don’t stop making disciples.

And don’t stop trusting the God who holds tomorrow in His hands.

And one day you’ll look back and find it wasn’t really wasted time.

A Final Word of Encouragement

Let me give you a simple exercise this week.

Take a few minutes and write down two things.

First, identify something you’ve been waiting for God to do.

Maybe it’s a breakthrough in your church, a new ministry opportunity, or an answer to a long-standing prayer.

Then ask yourself a second question:

What can I faithfully do today while I trust God with tomorrow?

Maybe it’s calling someone who needs encouragement.

Maybe it’s inviting a neighbor to coffee.

Maybe it’s spending time mentoring a young believer

Whatever it is, take that step.

Because the holy work of waiting is not about standing still. It’s about remaining faithful while God continues His work.

Join Me on the Journey Toward Advent

This is the second article in our eight-week series, When Hope Comes Home: Preparing Our Hearts for the God Who Comes Near.

Each Monday, we’re exploring how God meets us in the ordinary and sometimes difficult seasons of life as we prepare our hearts for Advent and Christmas.

I’m using these reflections to help shape a new sixteen-day Advent devotional centered on hope, peace, joy, and love.

Next week, we’ll explore “God Does His Best Work in Unlikely Places.” We’ll discover why the little town of Bethlehem reminds us that God has never been limited by the size of a town, the resources of a congregation, or the expectations of the world.

And I’d love to hear from you too.

What has God taught you during a season of waiting?

Share your story in the comments. It may be exactly what another pastor needs to hear today.

And if the article has been an encouragement to you, please take a moment to share it with someone else who needs a reminder that God is still at work, even when the progress seems slow.