In seasons of trials and closed doors. 

Purpose In The Waiting

Closed doors and failed plans and waiting are hard things.

Recently I’ve found all of those things in my life. I’m a planner and a control freak at heart. I like knowing what I’m doing and having set goals and executing plans.

Stubbornly, I like to think up a plan in my head, then assume God is on board and wait for Him to come alongside me and accomplish it. Often though, it doesn’t actually happen this way.

In complete honesty, for a few years I thought I had my life totally mapped out. I had a pretty well thought out plan in my head as to how the next five years or so would go and was content and excited with the idea of it.

Then those plans all fell apart as I ran into some closed doors, and coming to terms with that was difficult. I realized my ideas and hopes and plans weren’t God’s for my life. They didn’t line up with His will, so He shut the doors.

It wasn’t until those doors were shut on me that I discovered I was giving my plans and hopes and dreams a lot more weight than I’d realized. They were idols in my life. 

They were things the Lord never promised me but expected from Him. Then when He said no, it was like my life didn’t really make sense anymore and He was robbing me of something.

Sometimes I have to laugh while I’m sulking and feeling sorry for myself because I realize if I’d just let the Lord rule my thoughts and ideas and hopes and dreams from the get-go, rather than try to be in control and expect God to hop on board, how much more peace I would have rather than feeling like something was taken from me when the doors were closed.

It’s been a healing process and a learning process, and in this time of thinking and praying and seeking the Lord, He’s revealed some things to me.

Sometimes He places us in waiting periods for a divine purpose, and these waiting periods and closed doors are absolutely, completely necessary — whether it’s just an issue of timing or even protection from something we wanted that isn’t actually good for us or something else.

He’s shown me that in the waiting and behind the scenes, He is at work accomplishing His purposes.

I need to believe when He prevents things from happening in my life it’s for my good because He loves me.

Look at Joseph, for example. He was sold into slavery by his own brothers, later lived with Potiphar, his powerful Egyptian master with whom he found favor, then was wrongly accused of committing adultery with Potiphar’s wife and imprisoned. I’m sure Joseph felt like he was experiencing his fair share of closed doors and disappointments; however, the Lord used that time to prepare him to save Israel from famine, to use him to accomplish His purposes in a major way and to eventually forgive his brothers for their sin against him. (Genesis 37-46)

I believe those major wins all took time and were worked out in his heart in the waiting through the trials.

Psalm 105:16-22 says, “When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a cast of iron; until what he said came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him. The king sent and released him; the ruler of the people set him free; he made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach the elders wisdom.”

Joseph wasn’t a victim of setbacks and tragedies. He was SENT AHEAD to accomplish God’s purpose, and the only way that could be achieved was through trial.

The Lord has made it clear to me that I’m called to be in a waiting period right now, a time of being still in His presence and waiting on Him for my next move.

As someone who is always on the go and feels lazy resting, this has been a struggle for me. But I’m learning that in the waiting and stillness, He is accomplishing His purposes.

I believe He’s doing work behind the scenes, honoring my patience and obedience, and working things out in His timing that I could’ve never accomplished in my own striving.

He’s teaching me, even through examples of friends and stories that I’m hearing and seeing, He is WORTH the wait.

Instead of being anxious and restless and bored waiting, He’s teaching me to be FAITHFUL in my waiting and diligent in the tasks He’s set before me: to show up at my job, to pour into my relationships and ministries, and use the time He’s given me wisely.

I am in the place that I am in today for a reason, and I need to be diligent and proactive here. He’s convicted me about wishing seasons away and being discontent, and He’s showing me He is Lord and His way is best. His timing is genius.

Though I see things as being at a standstill, He may be working behind the scenes mightily, intricately weaving things together and allowing me the time to rest and be strengthened and renewed before He leads me somewhere else.

If you’re growing weary from closed doors and disappointments and waiting, be encouraged.

God IS working. He DOES have a plan.

Be FAITHFUL and diligent where you are now with the resources set before you currently because there surely is a mighty purpose in the wait that He wants to accomplish.

None of the time you’re given is a waste. Thank God for every day no matter what that day looks like versus what you wish it would look like.

He knows what He’s doing.

– Corinne