7 Principles To Adhere To In Your Time Of Waiting

In life there comes a time when you will find yourself waiting for something or you are waiting on someone.  You have been waiting on that call with a job which to you seems like forever. You look up at the clock, and it is already twenty minutes after the hour and your date has not arrived to pick you up and neither did you get a call to know what’s wrong, so you sit there and you wait.

You are at the church and all the guests have arrived and there you are at the alter wondering, hoping and praying that your bride will show up and both of you will be whisked off into the sunset on your carefully planned honeymoon. You begin to get cold feet…

Did she change her mind? Is she having second thoughts?

You have invested so much time and money to build your business and your blog – still no increase in traffic and no income from ads..

You’ve prayed. You have been trusting God. You ask yourself the question again and again, “when will my change come? When will I start seeing returns on my investment? When will I get my healing? When will I conceive?” You’ve taken the test and there you are waiting for the doctor to call you with the test results..

Why couldn’t life be easier, like perhaps a walk in the park and that you did not have to wait on anything? You wonder when will your troubles end…And without realizing it, many of your thought habits get in the way. Your mind is now out of control and you get stuck into negative patterns of thinking. Below we will share 7 principles that you need to adhere to in your time of waiting as you allow yourself to feel the happiness you deserve and the freedom to live, love and be happy even while you wait.

Read also: 4 Reasons We Should Wait On God’s Timing

1. Stay in your position – the referral here means a spiritual place as opposed to a physical place. It is also a place where quitting should never be considered as an option. You have got to remain on the path of life that God has predestined and chosen for you even if it hurts and even if there are ‘pot holes’ as in the un-expected circumstances that you meet along the way, to which you do not readily have the solution to.

2. Maintain a humble disposition – humility brings credibility to you while it authenticates your life story. It qualifies you for a miracle and the divine favor of God. He opposes the proud but will certainly give grace to the humble.

He has no use for conceited people, but shows favor to those who are humble.” ~ Proverbs 3:34 GNT; James 4:6

God is honored when we go humbly before Him and acknowledge our frailties, our weaknesses and our limitations. It is in times like those, He is able to comfort us with His word and to give the assurance that all things will work out in the end for the good of them who love Him and who place all their trust and hope in Him.

3. Remain faithful and steadfast in prayer – some see this as an opportunity simply to ‘cut themselves some slack’ and give in to doubt, despair and hopelessness. The truth is there is really no time off when it comes to believing and having faith in God. Continue to have faith, remain faithful to God and as Jesus said to His disciples in Luke 18:1, always pray and never become discouraged.

4. Don’t forget the kindness that others have shown to you – it is always good to remember past blessings, kindness and the good deeds of others in the past. This allows you to keep an open mind, to remain optimistic and to hope for the best things to come. Not forgetting the kindness of others, helps you to think all things gratitude, realizing too that the more you are grateful for what you already have, the more you would unlock the fullness of life which allows for your blessings to  find their way to you.

Helpful related post: 7 Things To Do When Your Life Is Falling Apart

5. Don’t forget to be kind to others – kindness is more than doing a good deed for someone – it is tenderness, it is an attitude, it is saying kind words to others and expressing genuine love to that person no matter what you may be experiencing in your own life.

As Confucius once said, “Forget injuries, never forget kindness.” Kindness is reciprocal. It is not a sign of weakness but it evokes warmth, happiness and will brighten someone else’s day. No act of kindness ever goes unnoticed.

To illustrate this, you may recall the story in the bible about Ruth, when Boaz the kinsman redeemer repaid her for the kindness that she had shown to Naomi following the death of her husband and as they both experienced the famine in the land. Ruth questioned the favor she received from Boaz and his response was this:

I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband….May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” ~ Ruth 2:11-12

6. Let go of your complaining – On any given day we can find countless things to complain about. We may even be thinking that life is all that bad with us while there is someone out there is having it worst off and wish they were in your place. But what value can you add to your life by complaining? Will it shorten the length of time that you have to wait or will it prolong it and just make our life miserable and put a damper on our mood and make us more unhappy.

We can choose to react to any situation we want, we can allow ourselves to be warped up into a state of negative thinking, or we can make a conscious decision to rise above the trials and be happy! So then,

Tell the negativity committee that meets inside your head to sit down and shut up.” ~ Martin Seligman

7. Let go of your fears and any self defeating thoughts – many of the things that hold us back in life are as a results of the self-defeating thoughts that we have concocted. They are unreal and more so imaginary and it is what prevents us from moving ahead in life. While in your hour of waiting, by all means stay away from entertaining negative thoughts which will only lead to you feeling depressing and unhappy.

“An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.” ~ Goi Nasu

OVER TO YOU…

Based on your own personal experience with having to wait, what principles have you applied to get you through that challenging period? Tell us about them in the comment section below to encourage someone else.

Until next time, make it a great day, wait upon the Lord and be of good courage, be of good cheer! 🙂

Yvonne

featured image courtesy: Freedigitalphotos.net