THE GRACE TO WAIT
- Nicky Heymans
- Sep 18
- 5 min read

Part of learning how to wait well involves developing the discipline of waiting, without getting stuck – and that isn’t as easy as it may sound.
Imagine what it must have been like for the Israelites in their forty-year wilderness season. Get up, get dressed, fetch the manna, cook the manna, eat the manna, fetch the water, tidy the tent, rest, chat with the neighbours…prepare dinner, eat dinner, clean up, go to bed. Next morning, get up, get dressed, fetch the manna, cook the manna …. you get the picture.
I’m sure we’ve all had seasons like that where every day feels just like the one before. We do the same things time after time, day after day. There is nothing new, nothing to be excited about and no fresh challenges to face. If we’re not careful, we can get stuck in a ‘safe’, boring, uneventful lifestyle and, instead of waiting well with hope and intentionality, pressing into God for what is coming, we start to just ‘exist’.
We start to wait for Him instead of waiting on Him.
It’s one thing to recognise that it’s time to let go of something and move on. It’s very different, however, when you don’t even know that you’re stuck, because you’ve got so used to being stuck that it has become normal. We were created to grow and change, to face challenges and dig deep into ourselves in order to discover who Father God has created us to be and the wonderful things He has prepared for us. A safe, confined, boring life can be very detrimental to our wellbeing and growth, just like it is to an animal or plant which grows in a confined space.
If an animal or plant is put in a container or cage that is small and confining, where it doesn’t have space to grow freely, one of two things will usually happen: either it will stop growing and eventually shrivel up and die, or it will continue to grow, but will grow deformed and misshapen because of the confines of its surroundings. Birds who have been born in captivity will often struggle to fly, animals locked in small cages present with stunted growth patterns, and plants confined to small spaces will often grow deformed, or wither and die.
I’ve heard it said that a rut is like a grave with the ends kicked out. Sorry if that’s a bit graphic, but there is truth in it – once you fall into a rut in a certain part of your life, it can take a fairly significant encounter to shake you out of it, depending on how long you’ve been stuck. So I guess what I’m saying is this: don’t let your waiting time turn into a death rut.
We want to be those who wait on God with expectancy and hope, in a place of trust, not impatience. Patience doesn’t come automatically when you wait – in fact, for a lot of people, the longer they wait, the more impatient they get. Patience comes when you wait WELL. It is the fruit of waiting well.
Waiting well is all about hope. Sometimes when you wait a long time for something, hope can fade, and disappointment can start to fill that ‘hope space’ in your heart and mind. Your dreams seem out of reach, and you start to despair. But it is precisely then that we have a fundamental choice to make – we can choose to give in to the despair and give up, or we can choose to hold onto hope and not let disappointment steal our destiny.
Psalm 42:5 says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.”
You’ll never guess what one of the Hebrew translations of the word ‘hope’ is in this verse: it is ‘wait’! Hope and waiting, when we do them as God intended, become intertwined. That’s powerful! I have seen and experienced over the years a supernatural grace that Father will pour out on us while we’re in a time of waiting. I call it the ‘grace to wait’. It gives you the ability to wait for the promise and not lose hope; to wait well. It’s there for us – all we have to do is ask Him to release that grace to us.
There’s a fairly common expression which I’m sure you’ve heard before: ‘don’t get your hopes up’. That is one of the most negative, pessimistic declarations to say over yourself, so I encourage you to replace ‘don’t get your hopes up’ with this: ’don’t lose hope’.
Don’t lose it!
Keep hope within your sight all the time.
Hold onto it tightly.
Cling to hope with everything you’ve got!
Declare it over yourself and your circumstances; expect good things to happen; say to your soul, ‘Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him.” Praise Him in faith for the good that is coming; praise Him because you know that He is good; praise Him because He is gracious and kind and because He CAN be trusted!
This ‘active’ type of waiting brings growth and I believe there are things we can learn by waiting well that we cannot learn any other way. It takes courage to wait well.
Psalm 27:14 tells us: “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!” It’s as if the psalmist is saying “Come on, be brave! You can do it! He WILL move on your behalf. Wait on Him and He will move!”
Let’s learn how to wait well. If you feel stuck, you don’t need to stay there. Use your waiting time for good. Be intentional about partnering with Holy Spirit. Don’t let yourself be limited or contained; get out of that rut before it turns into a grave. Make some changes in your life and your routine – not necessarily huge, life-altering changes, because that can feel overwhelming – but small changes that are doable. Ask Holy Spirit to come and get you ‘unstuck’. He will set you free: free to run again, free to explore, free to move on!
Don’t let your daily routine become dry and dull, try something new in the waiting.
Get ‘unstuck!’
Be free!
Learn to wait well!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Until next time ….
Ask God to share with you some of what He is doing ‘under the ground’ in your heart during this season.
Are you good at waiting? If you answered ‘no’, take a moment and repent for not waiting well.
Ask Father to forgive you for not being patient or trusting Him.
Ask Him to show you how to wait well.
Ask Him to give you the ‘grace to wait’; open your heart and receive that by faith.
If it is helpful for you, use the following prayer as a model:
“Father God, please forgive me for being so impatient and for not waiting well. Please forgive me for the times I have passively waited for You, instead of waiting on You with expectancy and hope. Please would you teach me how to wait with patience and hope and to trust You. I choose to let go of the need to know what the future is going to look like, and I receive from You the ‘grace to wait’, in Jesus name.”
I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or ask questions, either by using the contact form, or by adding your comments below.
Comments