Scripture Focus:
“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” — Genesis 15:6
“Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” — Genesis 18:14
Tom and Linda had been praying for the same thing for nearly seven years.
At first, their prayers were filled with excitement and expectation. Every conversation ended with, “Maybe this is the year.”
As time passed, hope quietly gave way to disappointment.
There were doctor’s appointments that ended with more questions than answers. Career opportunities that never materialized. Financial plans that seemed constantly delayed.
One evening, after another difficult conversation, Linda sighed and asked, “Do you ever wonder if God has forgotten us?”
Tom reached across the table and took her hand. “I’ve wondered, but I’d rather wait with you than run ahead without Him.”
Neither of them knew how or when God would answer. But they made an important decision that evening. They would refuse to let the waiting separate them. Instead, they would allow it to draw them closer — to each other and to the Lord.
Marriage Reality:
Every marriage eventually enters a waiting room. The question isn’t whether you’ll wait. The question is how you’ll wait together.
Few things test a marriage like an unanswered prayer. Waiting exposes what we truly believe. Delayed dreams can produce disappointment, frustration, fear, and even quiet resentment. Couples waiting for a child, healing, financial stability, restored relationships, or clear direction often discover that the greatest struggle isn’t simply the delay — it’s remaining united while the delay continues.
Waiting can either become a wall between husband and wife or a bridge that draws them closer. It all depends on whether they carry the burden together or begin carrying it alone.
What This Kind of Love Really Is:
When God first called Abram, He made an extraordinary promise: his descendants would become a great nation. It was a promise that sounded impossible, because Abram and Sarai had no children and were well beyond childbearing years.
Scripture celebrates Abraham’s faith but imagine what this journey required of Sarah as well. She carried the disappointment of infertility, the questions that must have lingered in her heart, and the emotional pain of time slipping away.
Waiting became part of their marriage story.
Many couples believe waiting is wasted time. God sees waiting as His classroom for developing faith, humility, dependence, and perseverance. The delay is not a sign of God’s absence; it is often evidence that He is preparing His people for something they cannot yet see.
The challenge for every married couple is deciding what the waiting will produce. Will it produce isolation, blame, and discouragement? Or will it deepen trust, compassion, and dependence on God?
Healthy couples learn that while they cannot control God’s timetable, they can choose how they respond to it. They choose to pray together instead of panic together. They encourage rather than blame. They remind one another of God’s faithfulness instead of rehearsing their fears.
Waiting becomes easier when you remember that you are not waiting alone.
You are waiting together as a couple. More importantly, you are waiting with a God who has never broken a promise.
What Love Is Not:
Love does not demand that life unfold according to our schedule. It does not measure God’s faithfulness by the speed of His answers, nor does it allow disappointment to become bitterness toward a spouse.
When couples begin believing that the delay itself is their greatest enemy, they often grow impatient with one another instead of drawing strength from one another.
Love refuses to let waiting become an excuse for drifting apart.
A Better Way Forward:
If your marriage is living through a season of waiting, resist the temptation to face it alone.
Pray together even when the answers seem slow.
Talk honestly about your fears without allowing those fears to define your future.
Celebrate the small evidences of God’s faithfulness while trusting Him for the larger ones still to come.
Remember that God’s greatest work is often not what He is preparing for you but what He is preparing within you.
The promise may take longer than you expected.
But if you keep walking together, the waiting itself can become one of the strongest seasons your marriage ever experiences.
Prayer:
Father, You are the God who keeps every promise You make. Forgive us for the times we become impatient or discouraged when Your answers seem delayed. Teach us to trust Your timing even when we cannot understand Your plans. Help us to encourage one another instead of allowing disappointment to create distance between us. Strengthen our faith, deepen our love, and remind us that You are always at work, even in seasons when nothing seems to be changing. May our waiting draw us closer to You and closer to each other, and may our marriage become a testimony of confident hope in Your perfect timing. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Growing Together
- Reflect: What season of waiting has been the most difficult for us as a couple, and how has it affected our relationship with each other?
- Talk Together: When life doesn’t unfold according to our plans, how do we typically respond? Do we draw closer together, drift apart, become discouraged, or try to take control? What have we learned about ourselves during seasons of waiting?
- So What? What is one practical way we can choose to trust God together this week? Perhaps it’s praying daily about a specific concern, encouraging one another with Scripture, or intentionally thanking God for His faithfulness even before we see the answer.
Take it with you:
The greatest miracle God performs during seasons of waiting may not be changing your circumstances but changing your marriage.
