The wind whips around you and the sand settles between your toes as your sandal clad feet stand amongst the dry bones of the valley. The silence is unsettling as you wait and watch for what happens next. The sun is hidden behind raw clouds casting a dimness in the valley.
The feeling that something important is about to happen settles in your soul but you have no idea what or when to expect it. You feel the itch to move, to look around, to seek out the answer you are waiting for.
Waiting. The hard part about being set in this valley isn’t viewing the bones cast about you, but it’s in the stillness. It’s tough when you don’t see anything happening.
Waiting is challenging in our current social norms. Just sitting waiting for an appointment seems like it takes forever. Waiting in line at the grocery store feels like an inconvenience. Waiting is hard, even with the gadgets we hold in our hands all day every day. The waiting we feel through our daily lives though is nothing like the waiting we feel when are forced to be still for the Lord.
When it feels like we’ve been waiting forever we often wonder to ourselves if we’ve been forgotten about. Ever make an order at a restaurant and had to ask to make sure your order got back to the kitchen?
Waiting on God can make us wonder if He’s forgotten about us. You know the whole, ask and you shall receive, thing? Well sometimes it feels like we must sit back on our heels and twiddle our thumbs while we wait on God to do His thing. We pray and pray and pray over a thing or situation and we hear nothing back. No confirmation that it will be ours. Not even a denial that might make us reevaluate. All we hear is the wind blowing by us in the valley.
I’ve been placed in the valley and been made to wait just like many of us have been. I’ve been writing on and off now for several years, but I’ve prayed over and over to find a way to write in such a way that it be pleasing to God. It took a while before I figured out what God wanted me to do. At first, I thought it was to write clean romance rather than what’s popular right now but even that didn’t feel wholly right. Then I began writing about Postpartum depression and began helping people there. And I realized that that is what I wanted to do. To touch people. Then I did an exercise where I wrote my personal testimony, and I realized I could help people with it too! So after even more prayer I decided to write about how God changed my life and how He can change yours.
Now I had to wait for this answer. It probably took a full year to hear from God. Some people wait months, others wait years. Even Ezekiel stood in silence and waited for God to speak to him about the valley he had been placed in. We can only guess at how long he stood there looking at all the skeletons around him and wondering what on earth he was doing there before God finally spoke to him. In the passage where God asks Ezekiel if these dry bones can live, we are not given any sense of timing so it could have been minutes, hours, days, etc. before God spoke to Ezekiel.
Psalm 130:5-6 states, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;” (ESV). Waiting is not a negative thing, even though we often associate it with negative emotions like impatience, anxiety, and fear. Waiting is something that we are told to do Biblically. Having to wait on something or a situation is not a bad thing. It seems like some of the things I’ve had to wait for the longest have given me some of the best feelings in the world.
Instead of getting that instant gratification that we’ve grown so used to in today’s society, waiting for something is in itself a reward. I feel like I’ve passed a test almost. Think about how Joseph had to wait for all those years in prison before he was lifted up and out of that situation. Was his faith tested in all his suffering? Yes. But Joseph’s faith never wavered. His faith and his patience were greatly rewarded. He didn’t expect instant gratification and made do with just being released from prison, but because he waited for God’s promise of good he was rewarded with a role in leadership and then finally a reunion with his family.
It might feel impossible to wait any longer. You might feel like your patience is wearing out. Trust me, I know this feeling well. Waiting for the Lord teaches us patience and patience has never been one of my strong suits. But as I’ve grown older and closer to God, I can now see His hand in all the waiting that I’ve had to do in my life. God promises us that He has plans for us and that He has nothing but good planned for us. What God doesn’t do is tell us when everything will happen. So here we sit, asking for something, and waiting. And waiting. Some might still be waiting. But that’s okay.
God gives us ways to be sustained and renewed. Psalm 130 tells us to seek His word to find hope. Isaiah 40:31 says, “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (ESV). So here we are told that those who wait as we are instructed by God to do in certain situations will be renewed in strength. Waiting won’t feel like burden. Instead, it’s something that we’ll be able to carry on our shoulders with ease as if it was weightless.
If you feel like your wait is taking too long, try to seek out the Lord in His word. Reading my bible often brings comfort to me that I would otherwise struggle to find. God’s word has a way of soothing my soul like nothing else does. Also, continue to pray about whatever it is you are having to wait on. God tells us that if we ask, we shall receive. We just must give up our arbitrary deadlines and schedules to embrace God’s perfect timing.
Also, think about all the other times God has been faithful to you. What prayers has He already answered for you or others that you know? Reminders that God will pull through go a long way to stretch out my patience. Just like when I let go of the expectations that something will go a certain way with my kids my patience lasts longer and I’m far less frustrated with everything. We’ve got to really give it to God. And then we’ve got to truly let the situation out of our hands.
Remember, silence from the Lord DOES NOT mean that He has left you or told you no. Delay is not denial. I ask that you hold on, keep watching for answers, and dare to believe that God’s timing is perfect. What are you waiting for God to do in your valley?
Breath & Bone 
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