How to Trust God in Seasons of Disappointment or Delay
When Hope Feels Thin: One of the Hardest Lessons I Learned Was How to Trust God’s Unseen Hand in Seasons of Delay
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I didn’t get here easily, but I can truly say I’ve grown content with God. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel disappointment—I still have moments where waiting feels endless, where hope feels stretched thin. But over time, I’ve found a satisfaction in Him that has carried me through the hardest moments and learned how to trust God in seasons of delay.
For those of you in the same waiting room, I get it. I’ve been hard-pressed on every side, just as weary as you are. I’ve wrestled with wondering if God sees me, if He even hears the prayers I’ve prayed. If I could sit down with my past self and share what I know now, here’s what I’d say to her—and it’s what I’m giving to you today. I know what it’s like to wait on something and feel like everyone else is getting it but you. This is how I’ve felt about my singleness countless times. I have been waiting, praying, serving, and fasting—living a life devoted to God, yet nothing. I know how it feels to be weary from always doing the right thing and not seeing much come of it.
We don’t talk often enough about being disappointed with God. Some might even raise an eyebrow at the idea of feeling let down by Him. We openly share our disappointment in people, but what about when that disappointment is with God? What do you do then? We talk about human failure, but how do we process the times when it feels like God has forgotten or overlooked us? What do you do when you’re weary of doing the right thing?
Here’s what I’d tell my past self and what I’m sharing with you: You let it out.
Let it out.
Pinpoint your emotions and speak about how you feel. Scream, yell, cry, write, sing—whatever you need to do to express your real and raw emotions to God. Lamentations isn’t the most popular book in the Bible, but it’s a powerful record of Prophet Jeremiah’s raw feelings after Jerusalem’s destruction.
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Jeremiah spent years pleading with God’s people to turn their lives around, to no avail. And when Jerusalem was destroyed, he poured out his heartbreak to God in utter anguish. As he sits among ruins, in Lamentations 3 he says:
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness, like those long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
As I visualized Jeremiah, I thought of myself; I thought of you, sitting in the midst of broken dreams and disappointments. Jeremiah was in the middle of death; everything around him was in ruins. He poured out his real and raw feelings to God, unfiltered. And he felt what we all feel at times: walled in, weighed down, left in darkness. For five chapters, he expressed the depth of his pain.
“Get real with your feelings,” says the girl who once ran from hers. Don’t mask how you feel. Don’t pretend that everything is all right when it isn’t. How do you really feel? Once you identify that, what has God said about your situation? When I think about my singleness and my years of waiting on God, I call to mind His promises. I recall the vision He’s given me for my future.
In the midst of his lament, Jeremiah remembers who God is and says:
Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. (Lamentations 3:21-26)
As Jeremiah remembers God’s faithfulness, he finds hope. Remember what God has promised you! What promise has God given you for your situation? Delay and disappointment aren’t the end of your story. If you’re still here, there is still hope. God sometimes closes doors so He can open ones that truly align with our lives. Sometimes He allows us to experience disappointment so that we can see only He is perfect. We may not know why, but God’s promise gives us hope that He will fulfill it.
I know things might not look ideal right now. But what does God say about it? His word reassures us that “weeping may endure for a night,” and though you may have cried for a long time, remember that one day is like a thousand to God. He doesn’t measure time as we do. And even when it doesn’t make sense, take heart—God has you.
The only way you’re going to endure life’s trials, the only way I’ve had peace in my singleness, is by knowing God deeply. This is why it’s so important for you to know the God you believe in. How can you have hope for your future if you don’t truly understand who holds your future in His hands? What does He say about your situation?
I know you’re tired of hearing “just pray,” so I won’t say that. It’s more than that. Talk to God. There’s nothing wrong with telling Him you’re disappointed. Prayer doesn’t always have to be formal—just let God know your struggles.
God will sometimes bring you face-to-face with the very things He wants you to heal from. Will you never be disappointed again? No, but you’ll learn how to break through it, each and every time.
Sometimes I wonder: “God, are you going to come through?” “God, do you see me?” “God, are you listening?” And I believe that God sees and hears our silent tears. Jesus experienced every emotion we feel and will ever feel. He knows disappointment, pain, betrayal, anger. God knows we’re going to be disappointed before we even feel it. Maybe He’s even watching, saying, “Let’s see how she’ll respond when I don’t respond”—and sometimes we fall short.
But we’d be foolish to think God would let our pain go to waste. I believe God uses every tear, every test, every success, and every failure. Nothing is wasted with Him. So how do we start to deal with disappointment (when we aren’t shouting our frustrations at God)? We trust Him. We trust His plans, surrender our will to His, and tune into that still, small voice guiding us forward. We let go of fear and try again. We give up giving up.
Sade Solomon is a NYC-based social media personality and multi-hyphenate creator who boldly and fashionably ignites authentic and candid conversations on topics surrounding intercourse, singleness, and abstinence. After embarking on her journey of abstinence in 2013, Sade began openly sharing her life-changing commitment on various online platforms while enlightening and inspiring many through her journey. In her book, Ready, Set, Wait, Sade peels back the layers of truth about navigating singleness and abstinence as a single Christian woman. Her work and commentary have been featured by Good Morning America, Harper’s Bazaar, Essence, Black Love, and XO Necole.
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When Hope Feels Thin: One of the Hardest Lessons I Learned Was How to Trust God’s Unseen Hand in Seasons of Delay was originally published on elev8.com
