It is a difficult thing God asks of us when he calls us to walk by faith rather than sight. We must exercise far more trust when we do not see the results we long for or receive the answers we pray for than we would if every result were exactly what we hoped for and every answer came exactly when we wanted it.
Sometimes we can’t help but wonder—what is God doing when he doesn’t seem to be doing anything? What is God doing when it isn’t clear that he is working toward the goal I long for? What is he up to when he doesn’t seem to be answering my most heartfelt prayers? The Bible offers a variety of answers, each of which can encourage us to wait with patience, hope, and confidence.
He is working all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11). God has a will—a plan and a purpose for this world and everything that transpires within it—that cannot be interrupted, thwarted, or superseded. That will extends from the greatest things to the smallest and from the most consequential moments to the most mundane. What God has decreed will come to pass. Even when it feels to our senses that God is not doing anything, he is always continuing to work all things according to the counsel of his will, for his will never rests and never stops progressing toward his own great and glorious ends.
He is working all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). Even when we see no evidence that God is answering our prayers or fulfilling our longings, we can have confidence that he is working things for our good, provided we love him and are loved by him. We can have confidence that he is working all things for our good, not just some things, and that he is working all things for our good, not just his own or somebody else’s. This includes, of course, the difficult things, the painful things, the things we never would have chosen for ourselves. No matter our circumstances, we can always have confidence that God is at work and that, when at last he makes all things clear, we will agree that his way was best all along.
The Father is keeping watch over his people (Psalm 121:3). There may be times when we feel abandoned or when we feel that God has become absent. “Surely if he knew about this and surely if he knew how much it hurts me, he would rescue me from it!” Yet even in these times of deep struggle, we can have confidence that God is keeping watch over his people, that he is never slumbering or sleeping, and that nothing is happening to us that has not been decreed or permitted by him, for God is always watching over those who are his.
The Son is preparing a place for us (John 14:3). Though Jesus ascended from this earth to be with his Father, he is not sitting passively by in heaven, waiting for the end to come. Rather, he remains deeply active and intimately involved in our present and our future. In John 14, he tells the disciples, and therefore every Christian, that he is preparing a place for us so we can be with him. In some way, he is preparing us for our entrance into his presence and the eternal pleasures of being with him. He has been doing this since the moment he ascended and will continue until the moment he returns.
The Spirit is interceding for us (Romans 8:26). The Holy Spirit has been given a special role to play in our times of weakness. In those times when we cry out in pain and bewilderment, the Spirit intercedes for us. He stands between the Father and us and transforms our prayers so that they are fully pleasing to God and fully aligned with his will. Even when we do not know what to pray or how to pray, even when our prayers are no more than cries of pain or groans of agony, and even when we no longer have the heart to pray, the Spirit is carrying out his ministry of intercession. (Of course, it is equally true that the Son is interceding for us, standing between the Father and us as the one who took our sin and gave us his righteousness.)
He is preparing us to enjoy his presence (2 Corinthians 4:17). In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul would write of the existence of deep sorrows and the temptation to lose heart through what may appear to be divine inaction. Yet he assured the church that if we gain the proper perspective, we will count even these as but “light momentary afflictions” whose purpose is to prepare us for “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Even when it seems that God is not lifting our burdens or relieving our sorrows, we can know that he is preparing us to better enjoy eternity and to have even more reason to praise his wisdom and love.
Even when it may seem that God is doing nothing, he continues to do everything! He continues to hold together the fabric of time, space, and existence.
He is upholding the universe (Hebrews 1:3). For this universe to exist, it was necessary that God would create it, for he alone is able to create something from nothing. God’s power is equally necessary for the universe to continue to exist. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ continually upholds this universe—that he maintains his rule over it. Without him and his continued involvement, this world would simply cease to be. So even when it may seem that God is doing nothing, he continues to do everything! He continues to hold together the fabric of time, space, and existence.
He is waiting for the last of his people to be saved (2 Peter 3:9). Peter assures us that even while it may seem to our senses that God is delaying, procrastinating, or that he has become absent altogether, he is actually exercising patience. He has promised that he will save all of those who are his and now he waits for the last of them to be drawn in. This wait may continue for days, years, centuries, or millennia, yet it is a purposeful wait in which God is drawing the ones for whom Christ died. Just as he waited patiently for you to be saved, he is now waiting patiently for your brothers and sisters.
He is bringing glory to himself. God has a great zeal for his glory, and the consistent witness of the Scriptures is that in all things—in all actions and silences, in all immediate answers and long delays, in all joyful circumstances and painful ones—God is bringing glory to himself. Even when it seems that God may not be doing much at all, we can have total confidence that he continues to do what he does best and what is closest to his heart: he is always bringing glory to his name.
God calls every Christian to trust that he is always active, always at work, and always deeply concerned for our welfare, even when it may seem hard to see and harder still to believe. The day will come when he will make all things plain, and it will not be difficult to trust God then as we stand in his presence and see him face to face. Our challenge is to trust God right now when it counts for something, to exercise faith in this moment, and to maintain confidence in him in these circumstances. Our challenge is to walk by faith until the day when finally faith gives way to sight.
