Keeping Faith in a Season of Waiting

For nineteen months my sister waited for a diagnosis. Every appointment ended with "let's run one more test", and every Sunday someone at church asked, gently, whether there was news. By the tenth month she told me she still believed, but she no longer knew how to pray about it. Keeping faith in a season of waiting is not a question of whether you believe. It is a question of how you live while nothing seems to move.

Waiting comes in many shapes: for a child, a job, a healing, a reconciliation, a door that stays shut. The scriptures are full of people who waited far longer than they expected. What they did in the meantime is more practical, and more forgiving, than the quick answers we often hear.

Why Waiting Tests Faith More Than Hardship

A crisis has edges. You know what happened, people bring meals, and you pray hard because you have to. Waiting is different. It has no shape, it drags on after the casseroles stop arriving, and it raises a quieter question: if God hears, why is nothing changing?

That question does not mean your faith is failing. Abraham and Sarah waited around twenty-five years between promise and son. Hannah wept at the temple year after year. The psalmists asked "how long?" so often that the phrase appears again and again across the Psalms. Waiting has always been part of faithful life, not a sign that you have stepped outside it.

Keeping Faith Means Changing How You Pray

In the early weeks of waiting, most of us pray the same request every day. That is right and good. But after months, many people find those prayers turn heavy, almost like a daily reminder of what has not arrived.

It can help to widen the prayer rather than stop it. My sister moved from asking only for an answer to praying three things each morning:

1. Her honest request, stated plainly, once.
2. One thing she needed strength for that specific day, such as a phone call or a test.
3. One person she could pray for who was also waiting.

The request stayed. It just stopped being the only thing she brought. When your own words feel worn out, borrowed ones help too; praying the Psalms when your own words run out is one way many people get through long stretches.

Let Yourself Lament Out Loud

Here is where I disagree with some well-meant advice. People in waiting are often told to stay positive, to claim the outcome, or to thank God in advance as if the answer has already come. For some that brings comfort. For many it becomes a burden, because every honest wave of sadness starts to feel like a lack of faith.

Scripture does not ask us to pretend. Roughly a third of the Psalms are laments: complaint, grief and protest, addressed directly to God. Job argued. Jeremiah accused. Jesus himself prayed in the garden for another way. Lament is not the opposite of trust. It is trust that keeps talking even when it hurts.

Try writing a lament in four parts, the pattern many psalms follow: address God, say exactly what is wrong, ask for what you need, and end with whatever small trust you can honestly hold. Some days that last line will be one word. That is enough.

Build Small Rhythms That Do Not Depend on Feelings

Feelings swing wildly during a long wait. A rhythm gives you something steady to lean on when you have no energy for anything grand.

None of these will end the wait. They make it more bearable and keep you rooted while it lasts.

Watch for What Grows in the Meantime

Waiting is not empty time, even when it feels that way. Looking back over her nineteen months, my sister noticed that she had become far more patient with other people's pain. She had started a small text group with two women from church facing their own long waits. She knew her neighbours' names for the first time.

None of that made the waiting good. It did mean God had not been absent from it. Keeping a simple monthly record helps here, because these changes are slow and easy to overlook. You are not trying to find a silver lining. You are noticing that life kept happening, and that grace showed up in it.

When Doubt Arrives

Almost everyone who waits long enough meets doubt. Sometimes it is a passing question at three in the morning. Sometimes it settles in for weeks. Many people hide it, fearing that admitting doubt will disappoint their community or prove they were never truly faithful.

Doubt is not the end of faith

Thomas doubted and was met, not dismissed. The father in Mark's gospel cried "I believe; help my unbelief", and Jesus healed his son anyway. Naming doubt honestly to God, and to one trusted person, is often what keeps faith alive. There is more on this in what doubt does to a practice, and why it helps.

Find one safe person

Choose someone who can listen without fixing: a pastor, a spiritual director, a friend who has waited too. Tell them the real version, not the Sunday version. One honest conversation a month can carry more weight than a dozen polite ones.

FAQ

Is it wrong to keep asking God for the same thing?

No. Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow precisely to encourage people to keep praying and not give up. Repeating a request is not a lack of trust; it is a sign that you still expect to be heard.

How do I keep faith in a season of waiting when others receive what I am praying for?

Let yourself feel the ache honestly before God rather than hiding it. Celebrating with others and grieving your own wait can happen in the same week. Both are allowed.

What should I say to a friend who is waiting?

Less than you think. "I am still praying for you" and "do you want to talk about it or about something else?" are usually better than explanations or promises about the outcome.

A Practice for This Week

Choose one small rhythm from the table above and keep it for seven days, whatever you feel. On the seventh day, write a four-line lament: name God, name the wait, name your need, and name one thing you can still trust. Keep it somewhere you will find it again. Months from now it will remind you that you kept faith even here. You will find more reflections like this among our articles on faith.