No doubt one of the hardest parts of the adoption journey is the wait. Once the paperwork is all filled out, your profile is created, and the nursery is decorated, the stillness of the wait can be agonizing.
Maybe you're not in the wait of adoption. Maybe you're waiting for a spouse, or healing in a broken relationship, or a biological child, or a career break, or a new adventure. Life is made up of waiting, in some sense, all the time.
In the wait, in the dark when the end isn't in sight and the end of the story isn't written, where do you turn? When despair and doubt can easily creep into our hearts, we need to be reminded of the truth more than ever.
I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Here's some of the verses I run to in seasons of waiting...
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9
The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises
and faithful in all he does.
The Lord upholds all who fall.
Psalm 145:13b-14
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:14
Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.
Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8
Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
Isaiah 64:4
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9
Let these words sink deep down, all the way to your bones. Write them on sticky notes and throw them on your bathroom mirror, the kitchen sink, and the steering wheel. In the end, we can't trust that the baby (or the healing, or the relationship, or the happy ending) will come. In the waiting, the whole time our trust can't be in the end result. We don't know the end of the story. We simply can't trust in things turning out the way we planned.
But we can trust in a good God who is faithful. In a God who is kind. In a God who is never slow in keeping his promises. And in a God who writes much better stories that we could even dream up.
This is the truth we can cling to while we wait for the rest of the story to be written.
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