If I am being honest, this semester has been very different from what I had expected entering into it, in a lot of good ways. While there have been different challenges, I have experienced so much more of the Lord, and for that, I can only rejoice. In experiencing more of the Lord, He is teaching me in several different ways. One thing that God is teaching me in this season is what it looks like to wait on Him. Up to this point in my life, I have either had really hard seasons or really joy-filled seasons, but I have never had a season that feels more like a steady waiting. That is this season.
If you are into the enneagram (a type of personality test), like many of us here in Mexico, you will understand what I mean when I say that I am a Type 3. I am an achiever. I like to have goals and things to look forward to in the future. Accomplishing things can become what I work towards, and I can often get too focused on my work if I am not careful. My natural tendency is to not wait and just act because not much seems to be accomplished in waiting.
However, that is not the case when it comes to the Lord. A friend of mine recently has reminded me that the Lord can accomplish more in a year of us praying than what we could do in ten years of trying our best. In this season, while I do not feel like I am accomplishing much in human standards, I am reminded that God is always working. Even when I cannot see Him moving, He is. He is always working. In fact, even in the waiting, He is renewing me.
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 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. Isaiah 40:30-31
In the waiting, God is moving. He does not have us wait just for the sake of waiting. It may be easy to be discouraged in seasons like these, but I am encouraged as I remember that God is not done. When I am wanting to see so much change and growth in the hearts of my students, I hear the Lord say, “Just wait until you see what I am doing in some of their hearts even now.” Philippians 1:6 says, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” I can trust that what God has begun in their little hearts, He will bring it to completion in His timing, not mine. When I am quick to question what the future may hold, I am reminded that the Lord is the One who will establish my steps, I just need to wait on Him. Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps”. That is not dependent on my actions.
God is good, even in the waiting, and He is to be trusted. In whatever season you may be walking through right now, be encouraged as you rest in knowing that the Lord is good, and even though we cannot always see it, He is working in the waiting.
-Rachel Hill, GEM Missionary
If you’d like to support Rachel as she serves with GEM in Mexico, you can do so HERE. You can also contact her directly to talk further about what it means to be on her support team and find out how you can be praying for her!