It’s easy to not stay present and soak in the current season of life. We look ahead at the next best thing: graduation, finding a job, a boyfriend, marriage, or becoming a mom and we forget to live in the season the Lord has placed us in. Especially when the person next to us has the one thing we have been longing for. 

I’ve been in one season of life anxious and impatiently waiting for the next season. When I arrived at the next season, I realized how much I had missed instead of trusting God. So badly I would try to take control. Throughout college, all of my closest friends were in serious dating relationships or engaged. I struggled to be content in my season of singleness. I missed out on digging deeper in my relationship with God and spending more time figuring out who I was because I was frustrated to be “waiting”. It is really hard at the moment to lean on God’s understanding, but on this side, I realized God’s timeline is way better than mine.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

1. God isn’t bound by time

The enemy would like for us to believe we have a certain “timeline” and if we don’t follow it then we will “miss opportunities”. This is far from true. God is not a Father who messes up or allows things to be missed. God is the Alpha and the Omega – He who created time is not under the pressure of any time constraint. He is a Father who allows things to happen in perfect timing because He can see ahead to the things we cannot.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.  Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV

2. God doesn’t make mistakes but he doesn’t promise an easy life

Following Jesus doesn’t mean life will be easy, he actually tells us the opposite. 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5

We will experience heartbreak, hard times, and uncomfortable situations. Just because we don’t see Him doesn’t mean He isn’t working. The sufferings help us run to Jesus and rely on Him. Our minds will never be able to comprehend the God who created all – the only perfect and holy being. He created time and He is all-knowing – He looks ahead and places life together in a way our brains can’t comprehend because we are not God. 

being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:11-12

3. God makes all things come together for good

In seasons of waiting, I think of David. David was just a young shepherd boy when he was anointed to be king. He was underestimated and definitely not the first chosen by man. The prophet, Samuel even asked God if he was sure it wasn’t going to be David’s older brother. After David was told he was going to be king, he had to wait around fifteen years to actually become the king. Throughout that time, he had the opportunity to take control and kill the current king, Saul – but he didn’t. David was a man known to be after God’s heart. He waited on God’s perfect timing. 1 Samuel 13 – 2 Samuel 5

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 2 Peter 3:9 NLT

4. Live in the present & keep praying

Don’t lose hope if what you are waiting for hasn’t arrived and don’t be so fixed on what you’re waiting for that your heart hardens towards God. God searches our hearts and knows us well enough to know our hopes, dreams, and desires. It is a promise all things work together for good, according to his purpose. It really isn’t about us – it’s about God. It’s resting in knowing He is in control, He is good, and works all things together for good.

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:25-28

After a few hard seasons of life while newly following Jesus, I started asking God to align my heart with His heart’s desires. This didn’t make life instantly better but I started to see a shift from selfish desires to a desire of loving God. It didn’t mean I found instant peace in why my skin was painfully covered in acne, or why my parents divorced, or why I had to go through a really hard breakup while I watched close friends get engaged. It allowed me to shift my eyes to the good that God is doing now and shift my heart to want God more.