Damage Control: Avoiding Distance From God in Hard SeasonsSample

Strength While You Wait

All relationships go through ups and downs. But after 15 years of friendship, we never expected ours to be on the verge of ending. We’d been through the typical ups and downs that come with being long-time friends, but this was something different. As our lives began to evolve romantically and professionally, our friendship battled personal insecurities, lack of communication and deep feelings of discontentment. This was the hardest season of our friendship yet.

It was during this season, that we cried out to God and prayed for our friendship to be restored. Days turned into months, and months turned into more than a year of us feeling disconnected from each other. We had done everything we knew to do and still, our prayers went unanswered. As we waited on God to repair our friendship and move in other areas of our lives, our faith began to wane, and we found it difficult to stay close to him.

Waiting on God to move can be messy - and it’s often easier said than done. If we aren’t careful, the hard times in our lives become a breeding ground for distrust and distance from God. How we wait matters. When we choose to wait with pride and skepticism, our hearts are like hard soil that fails to cultivate the seeds God plants. But when we choose to wait with hopeful anticipation, our hearts are like good soil that grows a harvest many times over.

Hard times reveal to us that even in the waiting, God is at work. God has since restored our friendship and in the process, we discovered five ways for us to avoid drifting from Him and find hope in hard times.

This devotional and our repaired friendship is our testimony on the other side of many prayers and tears. We pray that as you journey through our story and the scriptures that keep us encouraged, you are strengthened in your waiting and drawn closer to God.

Reflection: In what area of your life are you waiting on God to move? Ask God to renew your heart and restore hope in that area today.