5 Things to Remember When the Wait Gets Long

Bola Olu-Jordan (Pastor Bo)
22 hours ago
4 min read

How to Remain Steady Until You See What the Lord Will Do

Sunday Bible teaching graphic for 5 Things to Remember When the Wait Gets Long, based on James 5:7-12.

What do you do when the answer has not come, the situation has not changed, and the season feels longer than expected?

James 5:7-12 offers believers five clear things to remember during seasons when waiting on God becomes so long that you are tempted to quit. These truths will help steady your heart and keep you faithful through the process.

This teaching is a call to endure the process until the end.

1. Stay Patient Through the Process

Don't force the timeline. The farmer doesn't rush the harvest when it’s not yet time; he waits until the fruit is ripe and the rain has done its work. Don’t rush to harvest what is not yet ripe. Delay is not denial. Your time of waiting is not wasted. If the stairs seem too long to climb, praise God in the hallway until the right time.

James 5:7-8: Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Promise: You will receive the early rain, the latter rain, and the precious fruit of the earth.

2. Guard Your Mouth Against Complaint

Pressure reveals what's in your heart. Many grumble, murmur, and complain when they run out of patience, but God hates murmuring. Moses reminded Israel that their grumbling over lack of food was not against him and Aaron but against the Lord (Exodus 16:7-8). Paul also warned in 1 Corinthians 10:10 not to murmur because “some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.” When you stop trusting God's timing, you begin blaming the people around you. Murmuring invites only God’s wrath and judgment. Guard your mouth.

James 5:9: Murmur not, brethren, one against another, that ye be not judged: behold, the judge standeth before the doors.

Warning: Don’t let the pressure of waiting bring you under judgment.

3. Learn From Those Who Endured Before You

You are not the first to suffer while waiting on God. Some prophets suffered and endured pain not because they were evil, but because they followed the Lord. They stayed faithful. Let their example steady and encourage you. Even Jesus endured. The writer of the book of Hebrews says: “Jesus is our high priest and he was “touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8). Their suffering did not mean God had abandoned them. Their endurance became a testimony for everyone who would come after them.

James 5:10: Take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spake in the name of the Lord.

Example: You have a pattern for how to endure.

4. Endure to the End, Not Just the Start

Job's story didn't end in suffering; it ended in God's mercy. Hebrews 3:14 tells us that “we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.” This aligns with what Jesus said: “But he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” (Matthew 10:22) Starting in faith is good. Remaining in faith is better. The happy ones are those who finish. Job’s story did not end with what he lost. James points us beyond the suffering to “the end of the Lord.” Stay through the process long enough to discover that God is still compassionate and merciful even when you cannot understand the process.

James 5:11: Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

Promise: There is mercy on the other side of endurance.

5. Let Your Word Be Enough

Pressure can make people say things they would never say in peaceful seasons. Don’t allow pressure to make you swear or say careless words. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. James says if any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man and able to control his whole body. (James 3:2). Control your tongue. Don’t swear to prove yourself or a point. Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

James 5:12: But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

Promise: You will not fall into condemnation.

What are you waiting on God for right now?

Maybe you have been waiting so long that your heart has become tired. Maybe impatience has begun to turn into murmuring. Maybe you have started questioning whether anything is going to change. Or perhaps you are simply tired of enduring.

James’ message is clear: Establish your heart. Guard it.

Don’t quit in the waiting. Don’t murmur in the waiting. Don’t abandon the example of those who endured before you. Don’t stop before you see the end of the Lord. And don’t let the pressure change who you are.

If you are in a season of waiting today, bring that matter before the Lord again. Ask Him not merely to change the situation, but to strengthen your heart until His purpose in that season is complete.

A Prayer for Strength While You Wait

Lord, give me grace to wait well. Strengthen my heart. Guard my mouth. Keep me faithful. Give me endurance, and let me live to see the mercy and compassion of the Lord.