Praising God In Times of Waiting

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Praise Before My Breakthrough

By Bryan and Katie Torwalt 

I'll praise before my breakthrough

I will sing because I trust You

I don’t know anyone that likes waiting. Christmas could always come faster. That vacation you planned for summer break is taking so long to come! Waiting is one of the hardest things to do. It is uncomfortable to wait. You are unproductive at times because you want that thing so badly! 

But how do you learn to wait longer? Maybe you have been waiting for years and God still tells you not yet. While you wait, you try your hardest not to get discouraged and believe that the breakthrough will never come, but our selfish desires, can steal our joy, and can make waiting unbearable. 

Think about when you were a little kid and you could not wait to buy the treat or go to Grandma’s. You might have become so impatient that you whined and begged till you finally got the thing you wanted. Mommy made you wait telling us it was not time. Thinking back, there was a purpose for that waiting, right? Yes, you can think of reasons why you had to wait. You cannot eat food before you buy it. And you had to pack before going to Grandma’s. While you waited anxiously, your parents were still working getting things ready to give you the thing you waited for. God is the same way, He is working while we wait. 

Through times of waiting, don’t lose sight of God’s faithfulness. It can feel unbearable to wait longer, but if God has given you a dream or a promise, the Bible says that He will fulfill it.

“God is not human, that He should lie,

not a human being, that He should 

change his mind. 

Does He not speak and then not act? 

Does He not promise and then not fulfill?” — Numbers 23:19

“No! God is faithful.” Those are the words I wrote in my Bible next to that underlined verse. God is not going to change his mind, because He is faithful. He is not going to leave any promise unfilled, He is faithful. 

So with the hope that He is going to be faithful in this time of waiting, now what? You still have to wait. Do what this song says Praise before your breakthrough. Before. It is so much easier to praise God when things are looking up. When the waiting is finally over, praising God is a natural response. It is a lot harder to praise God before your breakthrough. 

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” — Romans 12:12 [ESV]

The Bible tells us these three things in the same sentence, which means we are to do these things together. Not just when we are happy, but when we are waiting for our breakthrough. Praise God before your breakthrough. When the world still feels dark and confusing, praise God. But how? How do you praise God when things feel like they are taking forever and will never happen?

Declare that you will. Pray for strength to believe that is it coming. I have said it before in this blog post, that actually speaking declarations help your mind focus on them. Sing along to this song, think about the word, and praise before your breakthrough. The song is linked at the bottom and here is a link to the lyrics. Declare over your life that you will sing before you breakthrough.

Then choose to be content, this is rejoicing. When you have to wait it can be so, so hard to be content with what you have. So while we wait we have to do this: 

“Contentment is saying, “God has me here for a reason, and if He never does anything different, I will still serve and praise him.” Just do something by DeYoung. Page 101. 

Choosing to be content is hard, but it is the way we trust and honor God. By waiting we show patience. While you wait for something to happen, or a promise to be fulfilled, remember what Peter says: 

“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promises, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” — 2 Peter 3:9

God is always going to be faithful. He is not human to change his mind. Declaring over your time of waiting that you will you rejoice, have patients, and pray, will make it easier to remember that he is faithful. He is going to use your time of waiting, so you should use your time of waiting to learn how to be patient, one of God’s strongest traits. Trust him before the breakthrough.