Learning to Wait Well, with Carol McLeod

Are you struggling with a season of waiting? Discover the beauty of meeting God in your meanwhiles from Grounded guest, Carol McLeod. You’ll also hear an exciting testimony of revival from our good news correspondent, Ryan Raymond.

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Episode Notes

Meanwhile: Meeting God in the Wait book by Carol McLeod

“The In-Between: 5 Ways to Wait Well” blog post by Christina Fox 

Habakkuk: Remembering God’s Faithfulness Bible study by Dannah Gresh 

“I Will Wait for You (Psalm 130)” song by Shane & Shane

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Erin Davis: There's a difference between waiting, which I think all of us are probably doing in one area or another . . . and waiting. Well, that's the big idea of this episode of Grounded. I'm Erin Davis.

Dannah Gresh: I'm Dannah Gresh. We are on a mission today to give you an infusion of hope and perspective. Those are two things that we definitely need when we're waiting on the Lord. 

You know, Erin, I want to start this episode off right off the bat with wondering, what are you waiting for right now? 

Erin: Oh, I could give you a list I've shared on Grounded before. I have some chronic health challenges related to my heart and my blood pressure, and I am still waiting for God to intervene even though that's a journey I've been on for about a year now. 

I have several fractured relationships, friendships, and I'm waiting for healing. That's something that I am frequently asking the Lord how much longer. Then this is a big one. I'm not trying to sound super spiritual, but we were just talking about it when we were waiting to go live here. I'm waiting for Jesus to come back. I long for it every single day, and I just feel like I'm in the waiting room there. 

How about you? Dannah? What are you waiting for?

Dannah: Well, I said, Jesus can come quickly. I just look at the world. I look at the headlines. I am longing for His return, but I'm also eager and waiting for Him to move in the hearts of some people that I love, whose hearts are not walking with Him. 

I've been waiting for decades for the Lord to heal my husband from depression. That's a really big one. Bob and I are feeling like the Lord wants us to move from our farm. But the timing hasn't been there yet. We're sensing His leading to go but not His timing. So those are two of the big things. But sometimes, honestly, it's just even hard for me to wait for someone to respond to a text message. 

Erin: Me too, although I am very slow to respond to text messages. I don't seem to have reciprocal grace there.

Dannah: Yeah. Waiting is not something I do naturally or easily. And hey, if you feel me, we've got help in the wings. Carol McLeod is our guest today. She's going to point us to the life of Joseph and help us to see how God uses our meanwhiles.

Erin: You know, Grounded is interactive. It's not just this downloading our thoughts and wisdom to you. We want to hear from you. So, use that chat feature. That's what it's there for. Let us know what you're waiting for. Maybe some of the things that we've talked about here, I know that many of you are longing to have Jesus return too, so you could just put Maranatha in the comments. That's what your prayer is. Or, I don't know what it is. Is it a relationship? Is it a health struggle? Is it a job? Is it a move? Let us know what you're waiting for. 

Before we talk to Carol, we're gonna have some good news. I can't wait any longer to bring on our cohost Portia, our resident joy bomb, we like to call you. Today you're running the good news. Show us what you got.

07:59 - Good News (Revival: with Ryan Raymond)

Portia Collins: Well, we've got a story that is going to infuse some joy into your life. But I'm gonna need a little bit of help. I've got a friend here. Ryan Raymond oozes joy, and I hope it's contagious for you guys today. Okay, welcome to Grounded, Ryan.

Ryan Raymond: Hey, how are you?

Portia: I am great. Glad to have you here. So, I hear that you have a pretty cool job. Can you tell us what you do?

Ryan: Oh, man, I have the privilege of traveling around the United States with a team of 22 college-age students doing revivals and conferences at churches. 

Every weekend we're in a new church. I have the privilege of living on their parking lots. We call ourselves gypsies for Jesus, in a lot of ways. And so, we live full time in an RV nine months out of the year and just travel. We are loving it. We wake up every morning and our first our first thought every morning is, Where are we? The second thought is, What time zone are we in? And the third thought is this, Man, we get to do this.

Portia: Amen, amen. Y'all can see already, Ryan oozes joy. Well, recently, your team went to Calvary Baptist Church in Seymour, Indiana. What were you praying for God to do there?

Ryan: Every time we walk in, we always come in expecting God . . . what are You going to do this time? And so, we walked in Calvary not knowing what He was going to do, but just expecting Him to do something. The church had been praying for three months before we came. Two months before we came, they started praying for every single person by name—all of our team members that had a picture. They were just praying. They were meeting weekly for just prayer times of seeking God's face, confessing sins, asking God to move in their hearts and lives. And He did. It was an amazing time.

Portia: Wow. Okay, so let's go back to Monday night of the revival. God started stirring in the heart of someone that you might not expect in the revival. It was the Pastor. 

Ryan: Absolutely.

Portia: Yes. So, tell us a little bit more about it.

Ryan: Well, Monday night was our talk on pride and humility. We were dealing with our pride. A lot of us think, Man, pride is this big thing, and it's all about me. We're looking at 1 Peter, and 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your cares upon God, because He cares for you.” 

And so, in the middle of Peter talking about pride, he all of a sudden makes the switch to worry and to anxiety. The pastor came up at the end of the invitation and said, “I gotta tell the congregation something.” 

And I said, “Okay.” 

So he takes the microphone, and he's like, “Church, I need you to forgive me. I've been prideful and did not even know that it was pride.” He said, “I'm worried about you. I'm worried about our church, and worried about the lost in our community. And my worry is me thinking that I can handle it when I need to be giving it to God, and I need to trust Him.” 

He goes to sit down and I said, “Church, your pastor just asked for prayer, what should we do?” And they went to pray. They all flooded the front, wrapped around him and his wife and just laid hands on him and prayed over him. It was a sweet moment. 

We came out of that, and instead of doing a little inventory that we do in the back of our workbooks, like a little worksheet, kind of talking about pride and humility, the altar just became flooded with people just coming in casting their cares before God and thanking God, “I'm worried about this. God, I've got this concern. I've got this care.” And so, it was truly an amazing outpouring that evening.

Portia: Yeah, I can imagine that it was a sight to see everybody come in, coming to the front to pray. 

Ryan: Yes. 

Portia: Yeah, I'm just visualizing, and I just can imagine how beautiful they are. 

Ryan: Yes. That was just the start of it, though. What was so cool was Wednesday night, we get in there 45 minutes prior to service to just pray for our team, pray over the evening service. And our children's ministers were like, “Hey, we feel a little jealous because God makes these moves. And we're with the kids in the children's stuff, and we don't ever get to see it.” 

So, we just prayed, “God, would You move in a way that the kids can be a part of it and the children's ministers can be a part of it?” Well, little did we know that night, 45 minutes later, we got interrupted our worship. The pastor came up. We were singing “Lead Me to the Cross.” And He says, “Listen, guys, we sing this song. And it says, Now I lay me down. I surrender my life.” And he said, “We don't surrender anything. We're a bunch of liars.” 

I was just like, “Okay.” 

He said, “We're gonna sing this song again, but I don't want you to sing if you can't sing these words if you can't meet them.” And so I'm in the moment going, “Okay, God, we have a plan, what is it you're wanting to do?” And I said, “We're going to call an audible. We're not going to announcements. We're not releasing the kids. We're gonna sing the song.” 

We opened up the altar, and people came down front at the altar. This one little girl, she was probably seven, comes walking down and just kneels at the altar. I lost it. I was like, “God, I don't know what you're doing. But wow.” 

I came out of that moment. I felt like God was telling me, “Present the gospel plain and clear.” So, I presented the gospel, six children and two youth gave their hearts to Christ that night, while our children's ministers are in the room. So their prayer of God, we want to seek You move, God said, “Let Me show you that. I'm hearing you. I care about you. I see you right where you are.” And man, He changed lives. It was amazing.

Portia: What an amazing visual description of what it's like to see God move to see revival. That is just so awesome because that resonates so deeply with us here at Grounded. We know our Grounded sisters love revival. I'm just grateful that you were able to paint that picture for us now and not just painting the picture, but telling us the truth of what happened. That is wonderful. Well, I want to ask you this. I probably already know the answer to this, but I want to hear from your heart. What role did prayer play in all of this?

Oh, my word, prayers, I think the primary thing God says in 2 Chronicles, “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray.” When we've seen God move the most, it's because His people have been praying. They've been preparing their hearts; they've been preparing the soil of their hearts to receive the truth. We don't come in and bring new truth to them. We're reminding them of old truth that they just need to obey. We all know that we don't need new truth. We just need more obedience. And that prayer lays the foundation for it. And that's when we see God move. That, I think, is the difference that we've seen, from God moving in little ways to the hearts and lives of individuals and into large corporate ways is when the corporate people coming together to pray

Portia: Amen. Well, speaking of prayer, Ryan, would you mind just closing us out in prayer and asking God to send revival not only in our churches, but outside the walls of the church buildings.

Ryan: Amen. 

Lord Jesus, thank You so much for just the privilege to join You in Your ministry. God we ask that You would pour Your Spirit out in a fresh, in a real way in our hearts and lives today. Lord, to all of us that are watching and listening to this. Lord, we ask that this would be a time where we truly will get on our knees and seek You and to humble ourselves, and turn from our wicked ways. 

Lord, we ask that You would pour out Your Spirit upon Your people. Lord, knowing that revival is for Your people to be revived again. Lord, to bring back to life what was once alive, so that God, we may then engage in our community and engage in our culture, or through evangelism or through reaching them through telling them about You. 

God, I pray that You would raise up people who say, “God, I will do anything. I will go anywhere. I will be Your man. I'll be Your woman.” And Lord, that they'll just say “yes,” that they'll put their yes on the table right now. 

And Lord, we look forward to seeing You move. Thank You, God, that You are moving. And thank You, Lord, that You give us the privilege and the opportunity to be a part of it. God, we give You all of the glory, knowing that it is not because of our works, but it is because of Your work. And Lord, Thank You in Your name we pray. Amen.

Portia: Amen, amen. Thank you so much for being here today.

Ryan: You’re welcome.

Portia: You have been a joy,

Ryan: Thank you. It's precious; love you guys.

Dannah: Portia, thank you so much. That was a great interview. It was refreshing to see him. He was outside and the fall leaves behind him revived my heart. Yes, I think that that little puppy barking in the background. If you're listening by audio, you might say, “What? There's a dog in the studio.” No, Portia doesn't have a dog. Emmie is enough. It's all she can handle. 

Portia: I'm telling you. 

Dannah: Yeah, it must have been a neighbor dog. He was rejoicing for a revival. 

Portia: He was.

Dannah: That’s how we roll with animals. They're always crying out for Jesus. 

All right, let's go ahead and get grounded with God's people. I gotta tell you that I have been hungry for revival. It's encouraging to hear that people are seeing it, and I just say bring it Lord. Meanwhile, we are here on planet earth, doing this in this world. You will have trouble, it’s part of humankind's history. 

18:17- Grounded with God's People (Carol McLeod)

Meanwhile, that word, it says a lot. It's just like a big neon sign that may as well be translated “waiting room.” Well, if you're in a meanwhile period in the history of your own life, today's guest wrote a book on how to get through it. The title is Meanwhile: Meeting God in the Wait, and it's written by Carol McLeod. Welcome, Carol. We're so glad to have you today.

Carol McLeod: Hi, Dannah. It's great to be with you. Thanks for having me.

Dannah: Hey, let's just go right to the heart of your hardest ever meanwhile?

Carol: You know, Dannah, sometimes I feel like my whole life has been a meanwhile. I think probably some of our friends could really relate to that. But I think my hardest meanwhile was when I wanted a baby more than anything else. I love being a mom. I was one of those crazy moms. I loved putting a little pacifier back in the rosebud mouth at 1 a.m., 2 a.m., and 3 a.m. I loved it all. I got pregnant and lost the first baby at 12 weeks, and the second baby at 15 weeks and the third baby at 16 weeks, the fourth baby at 20 weeks, and the fifth baby at 16 weeks. 

Dannah, it was devastating. I was depressed. I was in that same pit that Joseph had been thrown into by his brothers. I was in that pit so many believers know it. It's the pit of depression. There are different kinds of depression. Mine was circumstantial, based on a traumatic experience in life. 

But Dannah, I have to tell you that although those days were emotionally devastating, that they ravished me. They also taught me such valuable lessons. Like, when you're in the wait, Dannah, you learn lessons that you will learn nowhere else in life. 

Dannah, one thing I learned that word wait in the Bible is a period of time when you're waiting for the intervention of God, but it's also referring to a river. Let me tell you about that Dannah. So, a wait river is where two parts of the river come together. That's called the wait. So, you've got these two little streams that come together, and they become one bigger stream, one massive stream. The wait is where they join. 

And Dannah, in our lives that's true, to a wait in life is where we join with God. And you know, when those two streams joined together, you can't tell the water of one from the water of the other. And when we've gone away, and we've waited, well, God infuses our character, and He becomes a bigger part of us, and we become like Him. So, a wait is never a waste. It is a time of profit in a believer’s life.

Dannah: Oh, true. That's a beautiful word picture. Thank you for sharing that. Is there a Scripture verse that has been maybe helpful for you as you have been in that place? Because even when we know there are treasures here, even when we know I am experiencing God here, it can be so hard. I find that clinging to the promises of the Word helps me. What have you clung to?

Carol: Yeah. So, you know my book, Dannah, is really about this story of Joseph in the Old Testament. The anchor verse that I've chosen for his stories at the very end of his story is found in Genesis, chapter 50:20. The decades have passed, he was reunited with his brothers, their daddy had just died, and the brothers are afraid. 

Oh, no, what's Joseph going to do with us now? And Dannah, just picture the scene for a minute. You know, the brothers are probably paunchy; they have those long Hebrew beards. And Joseph looks at them and says, “Guys, listen, what you meant for evil, God meant for good to save a generation alive.” 

And so, whatever we go through in life, Dannah, one thing I learned is that Genesis is not just the beginning of the Bible, but it's also the foundation of the Bible. So in the book of Genesis, we find foundational principles that we can apply to nearly every book in the Bible. And this is one of them. What you meant for evil, God meant for good. That is the Romans 8:28 of the Old Testament, and that word “meant” is such a powerful word, Dannah. It comes from the Hebrew word maka chava. And this word doesn't just mean meant, but it means “invention, masterpiece, creative imagination.” 

So, our God is so great that our Father looked down the hallways of Joseph's life. And He said, “Yeah, your brothers are not going to treat you well. You're gonna be bullied; you're gonna be thrown into a pit. You're gonna be thrown, you're gonna be sold into slavery. But I can do something with that.” The Father said, “I can take that and use it for an extraordinary good.” And the God of Joseph, He's the God of you and me. He's the God of our friends and our listeners. No matter what comes our way, the Father takes it and uses it for a creative masterpiece in our lives for a greater good,

Dannah: Exactly. I think so many of the things that have been painful, deeply painful for me, I think of 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 that says that the “God of all comfort comforts us in all of our troubles, so that we can comfort others with the same comfort we ourselves have received from Jesus Christ.” That's Dannah’s paraphrase, by the way, but you know, it's in those places that I'm equipped to be useful for the kingdom of God. Going back to the story of Joseph, Carol, it seems like that story is extra applicable for us today in a lot of special ways. What are some ways that you found as you were studying the story that it really is easy for us to take away some lessons from the story of Joseph's life?

Carol: I really appreciated yours and Erin's vulnerability at the beginning of the program, because you talked about some of the things you were waiting for. One of the things Erin said was broken relationships. You know, you don't get to where we are without going through some pain in human relationships. 

And Dannah, one of the greatest lessons I learned from Joseph happens in Genesis 45. It's when he reintroduces himself to his brothers. They've been to Egypt twice now to get food, but they didn't know who he was, although he knew who they were. And the moment had come. He's going to tell them who he was—that he's their little brother, that they beat up, that they bullied, that they sold into slavery. An it says that his cries echoed down the palace hallways. Dannah, so great was his emotional pain. 

I don't know about you, but I know that relationship pain, where your cries echo through the hallways of life. 

But what were the first words that came out of Joseph’s mouth? You know, for me, it might have been something like, “Why did you treat me like that?” or “What were you thinking?” or “Come on guys, was I really that bad?” But the first words out of Joseph's mouth in Genesis 45, verse 4, are these: draw closer. 

To his brothers he said, “Come on guys. Let’s try again. Let's be in a relationship. I want to be with you. You're valuable to me. And Dannah, that's a powerful lesson. Because as you and I know, Joseph is the Jesus character in the story. He's not Jesus, but he represents Him. And isn't that what Jesus said on the cross of Calvary, that we were the ones who bullied Him and rejected Him and were cruel to Jesus. And yet, Jesus said, through the cross, I'm inviting you into relationship with Me. If Joseph and Jesus did it, oh, man, you and I have to do it as well.

Dannah: Yeah, relationships are really sticky. I was just at a conference where a pastor was encouraging leaders. Ray Ortlund, was the pastor. He's a beloved pastor by a lot of our Grounded and Revive Our Hearts. He was teaching from Romans, where it says, welcome one another as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God. And he said, “We are welcomers. That's what we are. But right now, we are our church who has a lot of broken relationships. And our meanwhiles for many of us is that I'm waiting to be restored to my brother. I'm waiting to be restored to my mother. I'm waiting to be restored to my best friend. But so much of the political and just the negativity in the air these last few years has created riffs.” 

And his challenge was, we are welcomers. That's what we are in Christ. And so, where you need to welcome new people, but what if we would slow down and re-welcome friendships that have been broken? What would happen in the body of Christ? If we did that, and you're giving us that picture in Genesis, that's what Joseph did. He re-welcomed his brothers. He welcomed them. They did not deserve it. But he welcomed them into his heart. 

Alright, so let's talk about the woman who is in that season. Maybe she's estranged from her children because they had different positions on COVID. Maybe she's experiencing that waiting for a baby that you just talked about. That just really got me right here, Carol. That is something so many people write to us about here at Revive Our Hearts, and their hearts are breaking as they wait for that baby. 

Maybe it's what Erin and I were talking about, you know, waiting for my husband to be healed from depression that's been such a painful thing. Whatever it is, what's one thing that a woman can do if she's finding herself in a season of waiting right now—one piece of advice, Carol?

Carol: So one piece of advice, Dannah, I have to say is read the Bible. Don't let your period of waiting take you out of Scripture, because Scripture is going to strengthen you. The Psalmist said, “My soul weeps because of grief, strengthen me according to your word.” So don't close the Bible. Don't let your Bible become dusty. 

Listen, if you miss a day, don't let it become ten days. But dig right back into Scripture because it's going to give you a hope and a strength that you would never have outside of the Word. And just if I could say one more thing, Dannah read the Bible and encourage somebody else who's also waiting. Don't become so self-focused during the wait that you forget. There's a world out there in pain. Hebrews says encourage one another day after day. Well, it's still called today. So, if you're waiting, today's a good day to read your Bible and to encourage somebody.

Dannah: Good words. Carol, thank you for being with us today.

Carol: I loved it. Thanks, Dannah. 

Dannah: Hey, if you were encouraged by this conversation that Carol and I just had, you probably want to get a copy of her book. Again, the title is, Meanwhile: Meeting God in the Waiting. We will make sure that we put a link to that book in the show notes. Meanwhile, here's some encouragement from our girl, Erin, as she gets us grounded in God's Word.

30:56 - Grounded in God's Word (Ps. 19)

Erin: That was an excellent interview. You couldn't hear my amens in the background. But I was so tracking. I love that of all the things Carol could have left us with, she left us with open your Bible and encourage each other. 

So, let's just do that. Right now. We don't have to wait another minute. I'm actually surprised we haven't done an episode on waiting yet, because everybody's waiting. This is such a universal thing. There's big waits, there's little waits, and there's everything in-between. I will long think of that image of the two rivers coming together as we wait. And in fact, one way Scripture words this is waiting that we experience is, how long oh, Lord. Whether you know it or not, whether you've said that audibly or not, your heart has asked that question: how long? 

Oh, Lord, I could give a list of how longs here; we've talked about some of them. But I'm going to name some of them that I think might be true in your life, just so you know that I see you how long until I receive something I've been praying for. 

Some of us have been praying for something with at least a mustard grain of faith for decades, and it's hard to understand why God hasn't seemed to answer that. And so, we asked how long? How long until God gives me relief from physical suffering, emotional suffering, workplace suffering, any kind of things. We can feel like, “Oh, how much longer God do I have to put up with this? How long until my heart is healed?” Maybe you want to forgive somebody, maybe you want to not feel that incredibly sharp pain every time you think about them. Maybe you want to experience freedom from something that happened a long time ago, but you're just not there. And you're, “How long is how long until this is healed up?” 

Or we've talked a lot about relationships. I know I'm not the only one. I can think of two relationships right now that are “how longs?” for me. And this is good news: I can think of a relationship that I've been asking how long to the Lord for about five years, and the Lord is moving in that relationship. I've had to confess that I didn't think He was actually going to do it—even though I've been praying for Him to do it. 

Praying for your cancer to be cured. Praying for your prodigals to return is one often I hear from you, that you have children that are running from the Lord and maybe have turned their back on you as well. 

Those are the ones that came to mind as I was thinking about this group of women here that I know you're watching and listening. But I also know this, that's probably just the tip of a very large iceberg. You might not even know what your how long is. It might not be a prayer of your heart that you're conscious of. In that case we need the Holy Spirit to illuminate. 

So, I'm going to do something a little bit unique. Wherever you are, I'm gonna ask you to take a moment right now and ask the Lord this question, “What is my how long?” And then as you're thinking about those things, some of you maybe the Holy Spirit immediately brought something to mind. Maybe for some of us it'll be months or years from now the Lord will answer that prayer and reveal how long in your life, but while you're thinking about that, open your Bible to Psalm 13. 

Psalm 13 has been a lifeline to me in the past couple of years. Psalm 13 is for every person who has ever asked how long. Let me read us verses 1–4. 

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

Now, David didn't really think God was gonna forget him forever. But he's being very, very honest here about how he feels. He feels like God's not being attentive to him, and asked Him how long that's gonna go on. Still in verse one, 

How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all the day? 

He's talking about a state of depression. He's asking the Lord when is he going to snap out of it. 

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

That's an imprecatory prayer. We don't really feel comfy praying about that, praying that way. But David did. And these days I am to 

Consider an answer me, O LORD, my God;
   light up my eyes, lest I sleep, the sleep of death. 

He's saying, “Am I going to deal with this till I die?” 

Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
   lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 

David is so honest. You never sugarcoat anything before the Lord, and that's not super comfortable for me. But I'm trying to learn to pray that way, knowing that God knows what's in my heart anyway, so I might as well own it. It helps me understand what's in my heart; God already knows. 

But if you know David's writing style, if you've been in the Psalms much at all, and listen, the whole book of Psalms is for those waiting seasons. But there's a pattern to David's writing. He often will start out like this just kind of stream of consciousness praying. He's just saying it all; laying it all out there before the Lord. But then, there is always almost always a pivot, where David goes from all that is wrong. All that he's waiting for, all that he's anxious about, to the bottom line. 

Let me read this that pivot in verses 5–6. 

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
   my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
   because he has dealt bountifully with me. (vv. 1–6)

How could David change his tune so quickly? How did he go from, “How long, oh Lord, how long, oh Lord, how long, oh Lord, how long, oh Lord,” to “I trust your steadfast love, and I'm going to sing to you God, because you've dealt bountifully with me?” 

Well, David seemed to know something that we all need to know. When you cannot see the plans of God, you can always trust the heart of God. 

It's an interesting thing about my character, I just can't see around corners. I don't really have much forethought, so I'm always surprised when something happens to me. It makes me lose every board game I've ever played with my family, because they can at least think a few moves ahead. I just don't have that ability. But when I cannot see around the corners of my life, I can trust the Cornerstone of my life. His name is Jesus. 

It's interesting. God doesn't answer our how long questions with answers about time. I've never known anyone, including myself, who said, “How long, oh, Lord?” And God said, “Well, you're only gonna have to endure this for two more months, three more weeks, four more days, five more hours, however many seconds, and then it'll be over.”

No, that's not how God answers. God created time, but He stands outside of it. But through His Word and by His character, we can know the answer to our how long question, whatever it is you're waiting for today. Whatever it is that I'm waiting for today. How long with the Lord will be just long enough, not one second longer than God needs to use that trial, that heartache to merge our river with His for our good and His glory, and not one second longer. 

So, think about your how long this morning. And I would just say it's okay to ask God about it. David did. I am. Carol did. But I would encourage us not to put our hope in the answer but to put our hope in God, who has loved us steadfastly and dealt bountifully with us.

38:40 - Closing Goodbyes + Resources

Portia: Amen. I try not to say amen all the time, but sometimes . . .

Erin: Well, if the shoe fits.

Portia: Yes. There's not a more appropriate response. I could say, “Hallelujah, or glory to God.”

Erin: I didn't even know I was gonna say that thing about I can't see around corners, but I can trust the Cornerstone. And as I said it, I was like, “amen,” myself. That was straight from Scripture; that wasn't my wisdom. God’s Word gives us that hope.

Portia: That is what the Holy Spirit does. People don't realize as Bible teachers, we're ministering to ourselves just as much to everybody else. 

Erin: And to each other. 

Portia: And so, yeah, thank you. Thank you for taking us to church. 

Well, we've got some tools to help you stay grounded. Erin has grounded us into the Word. And we've been grounded with God's people, and we want to keep this going. So, the first thing is a Revive Our Hearts blog post. It's titled “The In-Between: Five Ways to Wait Well.” We've got to drop a link to that in the chat. But just hear those two words: waiting well. I'm sure that makes your ears perk up. So, I encourage you to check it out. We’ll drop the link now in the chat and in the show notes. 

Also, one of the hardest things that I have experienced when I'm in God's waiting room is what seems like His silence. Like, “Lord, You're not telling me. You're not saying anything.” And if that sounds like you've been experiencing that, I commend to you the book of Habakkuk. It is a book that teaches us to walk by faith when God seems silent. And you know what? If you need help understanding this book, our very own Dannah Gresh has written a six-week Bible study that helps you to study it. I encourage you to check that out. It's titled Habakkuk: Remembering God's Faithfulness When He Seems Silent. We're going to drop a link to that in the chat and in the show notes as well.

Erin: I'm not just saying this because I love you Dannah, which I do, but it's one of my favorite Bible studies that I've ever done. I did it with women at my church. It was one of the favorite Bible studies they've ever done. It was during COVID that we did it. We all felt like we were in the waiting room, but it's somehow timeless and timely. So, thanks for writing that study. 

Dannah: Well, Habakkuk, he becomes a friend, and he really does walk us through hard times. I'll tell you what, Erin Davis, I gotta say, “Contact the Revive Our Hearts design team, because we need a social media graphic that says ‘I can't see around the corner, but I can trust the Cornerstone.’” That'd be bad. That's the shareable of the day. 

Erin: I will stand on that. Carol gave us two assignments. One of them, she said, “Get to the Word.” Then she told us to encourage each other as we wait. I love that verse about encouraging others as long as it's called today. 

So, let's complete the assignment. I'll let each of us have a word of encouragement to those who are waiting. Dannah, what would you say just an encouragement to those who are waiting and watching?

Dannah: Well, it really did resonate with my heart to encourage someone. You know, you can't think about yourself as much when you're thinking about somebody else. So, when you're meeting their needs, you're fixing the problem of all of our hearts breaking from the waiting, and you're taking your mind off of the problems, and you're being a part of the solution. 

Erin: Yeah, that was just really beautiful advice; keeping us from turning too much inward. Portia, what encouragement would you offer to those who are waiting?

Portia: I would say remember last week's episode. Remember your joy, find for your joy. Sometimes it's hard to be joyful in the middle of a hard, what is a seemingly silent season. But if we are anchored to God, and we know that He hears us and that He's sovereign, then we can still cling to our joy, even in the midst of our waiting.

Erin: So good. Two things I'd commend you: one is the Shane and Shane song, “I Will Wait for You.” It is on repeat at my house. Then this is our real hope in the wait, the coming of Jesus is at hand. That's what Scripture says. It won't be long now. And the wait is going to be over. So, it's okay to hope for the little waits to end and to ask for God to do those things. But I think my encouragement to you would be that a Day is coming. It won't be long now when Jesus is going to return for us. He's going to make all things new, and every moment of wait is going to be worth it to behold Him. So put your hope there.

Dannah: Amen. He is coming again. Until then, or shall I say meanwhile, let's wake up together every week with hope and perspective. We'll see you right here next Monday for Grounded.

Portia: Grounded audio is powered by Skype. Grounded is a production of Revive Our Hearts calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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