Do you know what it’s like to ask God for something and to keep waiting for an answer?
It’s difficult to imagine how God can have a purpose or happy ending to our life’s story when we’re right in the middle of longing for something more or missing something we once had. But God sees our story from beginning to end and He knows exactly what He is preparing us for even if we can’t imagine He’s doing anything on our behalf.
I’ve long been an advocate of asking big things of God. Trust Him with the impossible. Expect Him to come through. We ask big when our faith is big. So recently, I had to apply my own advice when it came to a 5-centimeter mass that was growing on my right thyroid lobe. After it was downgraded from “high-risk category” to “atypical but still a concern” I decided it was time to back up my words with action and pray that God eliminate it.
My surgeon said I could have the blob surgically removed but it would present a possible irreversible risk to my voice. Because I had five upcoming speaking engagements at the time—and am still planning on speaking for the next several years –I decided that was a risk I didn’t want to take. I was determined to trust God to eliminate it, obliterate it, and completely annihilate it. How could I say I believe God is the Great Physician and heals if I wasn’t willing to believe it for myself?
So, I opted to hold off on surgical removal and give God a chance to heal this. Besides, it’s slow-growing, the doctor said, and if it increases in size over the next several years, I could have it removed then.
I agreed to have it monitored via ultrasound every 4-6 months and I felt complete peace about that. I’m in your hands God, I prayed. And I knew He was saying Wait on Me.
Just three months later, in my first ultrasound to monitor any changes in the growth, I learned the tumor wasn’t gone. It hadn’t even shrunk. Instead, it grew .2 cm in all directions! Immediately, I was discouraged.
Did I hear You right, God? Didn’t You tell me to wait? Didn’t I sense such peace when I opted not to rush into surgery?
Yes, I heard Him right. So why didn’t He do what I asked?
My discouragement lasted only until that sweet silent voice of God penetrated my heart: Now you know what it feels like to trust Me even when I don’t do what you ask.
Oh what love my Father has for you and me! God knew I was writing a book to encourage women to trust God even when He doesn’t appear to be doing what they think is best. And my God didn’t want me writing from a place of theory, but from genuine life experience.
Oh Lord God, I know You’re still good, and all Your ways are perfect, and I trust You.
I had that surgery at the recommendation of a room full of endocrinologists and head and neck surgeons. And I came through it without impact to my voice. (Thank You, Lord.) And today I can tell you He is still good even when we don’t know why He doesn’t answer in the way we want. There were so many precious conversations with my earthly Dad during that time of uncertainty in my life. There were so many sweet ways my Heavenly Father was showing me He knows what’s best. And in those three months that I waited for what the doctor said would be an “immediate surgery” to remove what they now believe was a new mutation for an aggressive form of thyroid cancer, my Jesus and I had never been closer.
I want to always be that close to Him because there’s nothing better than the certainty of His presence during the uncertainty of our circumstances.
Are you waiting on God for something? Hope in Him, not in what you’re hoping for Him to do. Sometimes your situation isn’t so much about the difficulty, but more about your relationship with Him.
How can I pray for your trust in God during the wait? Let me know in the comment section below and I’d be glad to uphold you in prayer.
For more on the certainty of God’s presence during the uncertainty of life, see my books, Letting God Meet Your Emotional Needs and God’s Whispers to a Woman’s Heart.
Hi Cindy, I am sorry you have to go through this. I will def keep you in my prayers 🙏
I have many books from you and follow you for years. You are a great inspiration and through your God given gift you have helped many including me.
My prayer request is that I can walk normal again without pain. Thank you 🤗
I had three knee procedures done under the regenexx protocol and something went wrong and I have not been able to walk for the last 6 months.
Normally these procedures have a 96% success rate , 4 % say it stayed the same the 0.00…% say it got worse. And here I am the oddball of the 0.00…% 😔.
I really appreciate your prayers 🥰
Oh sweet Heike. I remember your name. I’m pretty sure I remember signing a book for you too. Thank you for staying in touch all these years. And thank you for your prayers. God has healed me 100 percent and I am so very grateful to Him (and for what He allowed me to go through) and to everyone who has prayed for me. And now it’s my turn to pray for you. There’s a reason God has singled you out as the lone one to suffer through this for HIS glory and my prayer today is that He will now honor you for your faith and your faithfulness to Him in spite of all that has happened with your knee. “Oh Lord, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our Healer, please heal Heike in every way so she can walk again, pain-free, for YOU. You know her heart to be able to move around even better in her service to and love for You. You know that in her healing, YOU will receive all the glory. Be glorified in her, Lord Jesus, and giver her, because of Your grace, all she needs to serve You better. IN the healing name of Jesus, Amen.” Stay in touch, Heike. I care and I will keep praying. 🙂
Hi Cindy, Isaiah 53:5 NASB it is written: But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.
…By His wounds/stripes we ARE healed. I encourage you to hold on to the Word. You ARE healed if you are a Christian. Sometimes you need to command your flesh to submit, ie. speaking to your mountain. Every day you can lay your hand on your knee and command it to be pain free. Command the pain to be removed. Command your knee to have the health and flexibility you had when you were 16 years old (or whatever age you were when it was perfect).
Jeff, in Christ we are healed spiritually, whole in our relationship with God because of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. But that does not mean WE hold the power to heal ourselves physically or that we can command our physical healing. Nor does it mean we can accuse other believers who still struggle with sickness, cancer, disabilities, etc. as not having enough faith to be healed. No one lives forever on this earth. Death is now inevitable because of the curse from the Fall of mankind in Genesis. But we can live healed and whole spiritually, and sometimes that means the physical healing comes too as an added blessing, but sometimes it does not. God told Adam and Eve if they ate of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. They didn’t die physically as soon as they ate it. They died spiritually. And as a result of sin, physical death now exists. The type of “command your healing” that you are proclaiming is a theology that focuses on self and the empowerment of man, and attaching God’s name to it. God is sovereign, He physically heals whom He will, and He allows some to remain in their physical ailments for the glory He receives as we continue to proclaim that He is good and righteous and just, even if we don’t get exactly what we ask for. But God, in Hs grace, always heals spiritually when we come to Him in repentance and faith. I do hope you understand the differences here between physical healing and spiritual healing (as well as physical death and spiritual death) that are clearly supported in the Word of God.
I am so glad to read your story and your testimony, as I was aware you had some physical things going on . I have been inspired by your writings and books, especially “Let God meet your Emotional needs”. It really was a help to me .
I need to trust God in that He is working in my marriage.
Margie, thank you so much for taking the time to let me know you have read and been helped by my very first book that was published — more than 20 years ago now. The message in that book is one I still have to come back to now and then and be reminded that Only Jesus satisfies and He must continually be first in my heart for my marriage and all my other relationships to succeed. Thank you, again, for encouraging me with your words and I am praying for you and your marriage today, my sweet sister in Christ. Love and blessings to you.
I was raised to believe and depend on God. I have always struggled, seems just when things are going good something crashes it and it feels like I am left to struggle again. Each time seems a little rougher. I am disabled but don’t let it stop me, I work part time as a caregiver and always there to help others. But this last November I was broadside and totalled my truck, left me more injured and lost half of my wages. My Service Dog got sick and found out he will have to be put to sleep soon. The bills keep coming but nothing seems to be going right. I have faith but it is being tested to the max. Trying not to go down that “rabbit” hole but it is not easy. I am a strong independent lady and been on my own since I was young so this is not going to knock me down. Please keep me on your prayers so that I can see the path he wants me to go on. I know he does not want me to struggle but there is a reason for this. I ask for strength and peace as I go thru this trial. Thank you
Vickie, I am praying for you right now. God sees your struggle. He also sees that “strong independent lady” who has been on her own since she was young and will not let anything knock her down. I encourage you, Vickie, to see God as your strength. This world honors independence and self-confidence and strength of will, but God honors complete dependence on HIM, God-confidence in Him not ourselves, and total surrender. “Lord, hold Vickie during this time, strengthen her so that she realizes in her weakness, YOU are strong, in her disappointment–YOU are the victor. Be her defense, her sustainer, and her conquering Victor. Bring relief to her situation for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Hello Cindi,
Thank you for your post.
I have been waiting for a job, applied for many, and nothing is coming through. I’m finding it quite discouraging. Thanks for praying.
Marlene, I am praying right now, in the name of Jesus, that the perfect job He has for you is still waiting and that is why He hasn’t allowed you to be offered anything less at this point. God is the giver of all good things and as we wait upon Him and trust Him and keep doing what we can, we WILL see His faithfulness. “Lord, please show Marlene very soon the reason she has had to wait. Please give her “immeasurably more” than she thinks is possible simply because she is waiting upon You and trusting You (Ephesians 3:20). And please knock her socks off with what You will give her in Your perfect way and Your perfect timing. In Jesus’ name, I ask this. Amen.”
I am currently waiting on God to restore relationship with my 2 sons, Jude (9) and Josiah(8). The waiting is so hard but I know that God is teaching me how to trust Him.
Oh Natalie, my mother heart grieves with you and I will trust that God, who is the Restorer of all things, will begin that reconciliation process. Keep praying for those boys’ hearts to soften, pray for them to sense the love of Jesus and the love of their mother. God works within hearts. He’s working within yours already and He can work in theirs, and anyone else’s who might be keeping them from you. Keep your eyes on Jesus and don’t stop trusting your Lord and Savior.
Hello, please pray for my faith to grow and trust God for what He has said He will do.
Maria, I am absolutely praying for that right now. “Lord, see Maria’s heart and that her desire is to grow in her faith and trust in YOU. Convince her that YOU are the One who never disappoints and she is the One who is never out of Your sight or Your heart. Astound her, Lord, with your irresistible love and Your incomprehensible peace as she continues to wait on YOU.”
There’s no one who knows me that can begin to see & understand what has occurred in the last 3 years & especially this past one. It has been incredibly painful but I trust the Lord more than ever. There’s so much I’ve lost up through even yesterday. My soul is truly learning to let go and rest. Sometimes you have to lose it all just to find that Jesus will fill in for everything you thought was lost. If I had to reverse this past 1-3 years part of me would be tempted, but I can see just a little more clearly what Christ has changed in me. I’m still a work in progress holding on tight but the Lord has promised “to restore all that the locusts have eaten”. I believe Him.
Oh Cherie, your words tell me you are right where your Savior wants you to be…fully trusting Him despite the loss and disappointments of these last three years. You truly DO have One who knows you and absolutely sees and understands all that’s happened. My prayer is that He will draw you ever closer and begin to show you that restoration He promises for those who are faithful. “Lord, bring that restoration “to all that the locusts have eaten” and may Cherie begin to see glimpses of Your redeeming work even today.” Thank You, Cherie, for your faithful, teachable, trusting heart toward Him. He will honor that, I know He will. Love and blessings to you as you begin to reap His eternal rewards.
So thankful for how your situation ended!! God truly is good! I’ve been thru enough tough/trying situations, that my own peace and trust in the Lord has grown immensely! However, where I’m getting frustrated, is in praying for my 14 year old grandsons. They are not saved. I pray daily, vigorously, that Jesus is working on their hearts, but when their dad (who was raised in church!) doesn’t go to church except special services, they aren’t getting the chance to know my Jesus.
I took them to church a lot from the time they were 2 years old, till they were about 11, so they do know the story of Jesus, and the Bible stories from their Sunday School classes, and do believe, but are not saved. It is the biggest burden on my heart!! They are too old now, to want to spend the night with us (grandparents), so I feel at a loss. All I can do is pray….pray their dad and stepmom will be convicted to get back in church; pray they will meet new friends that will invite them to youth groups; pray that an adult Christian mentor will show up on their school……whatever would help.
In the meantime, I pray, begging God to intercede somehow. I’ve prayed hard for over three years, shedding lots of tears.
So … I would definitely appreciate prayers of anyone and everyone.
Thank you so much for your ministry, and this testimony. God bless…
Jana, thank you for telling me this. I hear your heart for your grandsons’ salvation. And be assured your Jesus wants them saved even more than you do. And He can do much with our prayers, and even from people or situations in which we didn’t think to pray for. “Lord Jesus, call these young boys to Yourself…You are the One who gives us a desire or longing for You in the first place. Claim their hearts and draw them to Yourself through a heart-change by their parents, or through their own friends, through the parents of their friends, through their teachers, through anyone You have appointed to be in their lives or cross their paths. Thank You, Heavenly Father, that Your Word promises us when we pray according to Your will (by faith and according to what Your Son would ask You for), we know we have what we have requested of You (1 John 5:14-15). Keep praying for them, Jana. God truly hears the prayers of grandmothers. 🙂
Please pray that my heart would heal from a relationship with a man that never saw may worth and that I never loose hope that our Lord will one day soon bring me a man of God in which we can share this beautiful gift of life together with. That I would love and respect myself more to not go outside of God’s will. Stand firm to my call of obedience in Christ. Thank you so much!
Thank you, Norma, for sharing that concern on your heart. God knows your desires as well as your need for companionship and I believe He will honor you as you desire to honor Him. I will be praying that as God sees He is first in your life, He will bring a man to walk alongside you if that man will help you seek God even more. 🙂 In the meantime, make Psalm 37:4 yours: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
Praise God for His amazing love, grace and mercy! So very blessed by your testimony Cindy 🙏
Love in Christ
Mary Collins 💖
Thank you so much for your sweet comment, Mary. It’s good to hear from you. 🙂
Cindi, my faith became strong during a divorce in 2016 following an abusive marriage. Divorce was horrific and my faith is what kept me going. Divorce should have ended the abuse and pain but it seemed it all just shifted direction. My ex-husband told me if he couldn’t kill me, he would make sure I never wanted to live. He did so by manipulating my daughters and destroying the relationship I had with them. I have not spoke with them in 6 years. I have prayed and prayed fro reconciliation through the pain I feel. I know God has told us to ask big of him but also that it is in his time. However, after 6 years of no response, no change, I am almost to the point where I cannot believe for big things anymore. God seems capable of little things but no moving of big things. I am so happy for you and how you were brought through. But for me, I think God has forgotten me completely. My faith has been weak before at times but I always was able to continue with faith. Now, after all this time and no answer, it simply is no longer there. I think I miss God as much as I miss my daughters.
Oh Cathy, thank you so much for being real with me and letting me know what you’ve been struggling with. My advice, or anything I say, certainly can’t help, so let me just pray for you. “Lord, God, You know all that Cathy has struggled with. You know the pain inflicted upon her. You know her heart-wrenching pain of losing her own daughters due to lies and manipulation. God, You are the God of truth, the God of justice, the God of reconciliation and I ask that You show her daughters the truth of their mother’s love for them and their father’s lies. Please bring reconciliation between her and her daughters. Please move a mountain in those girls’ hearts by causing THEM to reach out to their mother. Please DO what is necessary to keep your sweet daughter, Cathy, from complete discouragement. How long, O Lord, will You let her struggle through this silence? Be her Help, her Defender, her Advocate, and her Reconciler. In Jesus’ powerful name, I beg You to move hearts, and at the very least, make YOUR presence known in Cathy’s life and circumstances TODAY, THIS MOMENT. Thank You, Jesus, for loving her and don’t let her give up on YOU. Pull her closer than she’s ever been to You so she knows You are still working in this situation and You have not abandoned her.” (I will keep praying for you, Cathy. I know as you continue to seek Him, He will be faithful. He cannot contradict Himself, He cannot act apart from His lovingkindness and His faithfulness.)
Glad you got over your issue while standing in faith with God. Very encouraging.
My prayer request is for God to heal my Broken marriage and give me clear guidance on what to do.
Thank you Cindi!
Jihan, thank you for sharing this request with me. “Lord, You are the Healer of hurts and the Restorer of broken marriages. Please give Jihan clear guidance, clarity, and your peace in knowing what she is to do next. Tune her ears to Your wisdom, from Your Word and Your Holy Spirit, not to the advice from this world or those who might mean well but are not being guided by You. Thank You for Your promise to keep us in perfect peace whose minds are stayed on You. In the name of Jesus, the Restorer and Reconciler of all things, Amen.
I’ve read a couple of your books and find your words, stories of other women very inspirational. I’m also a blogger and just recently posted how patience can be an act of holiness. It’s in the waiting that God moves in our lives. However, it can be difficult when you need an answer right away. This is my situation. Struggling financially and need our house to sell as soon as possible in order to pay off our financial obligations. When I hear others say, ‘you haven’t received an offer yet,’ I get discouraged. It’s only been a week but where I live others have sold their home in 2 weeks and received numerous offers the day their house was listed. I pray daily to God for our house to sell and doing my best to put this in God’s hands. However, it hasn’t been without being tested. My prayer request is for me to increase my faith and believe that God has a perfect plan for me and to not get discouraged.
Cathy, thank you for reaching out. I know that when God doesn’t do what we ask, it’s because He has something better. Or the timing isnt quite right. Perhaps He’s holding out for you to get a better offer or for the person who has prayed and prayed and prayed for a house and God is waiting to provide for them yours. “Lord, please assure Cathy that You have every detail of this in Your hands and You will ultimately cause what you know is best. Increase her faith and her trust in You during this time of certainty.”
Cindi, I’ve read almost all your books! Love your writing. I became a widow a few years back and read books that convinced a widow take Jesus as her heavenly husband and it helped me get through the grief so much better! I now have a medical issue. Had left lung cancer in 2021 and just had my 6 mo catscan…..all clear. But I have asthma and am wheezing and coughing a different cough. I’m going to my pulmonologist next week. Please pray that I’m ok and can be treated to get rid of wheezing and coughing. Thank you and may God bless you.
Carolyn, I am praying you will have comforting, encouraging news at your doctor appointment. “Lord, please honor Carolyn’s trust in You and help her to receive encouraging news that this cough and wheezing is treatable. Above all, make Your presence known and draw her closer to You than she’s ever been during this time of uncertainty.” In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Thank you for the inspiration. However, I thought you were trusting God to heal you without surgery. Yes, God brings forth our medical experts and blesses their hands but your testimony lost me as it went from trusting God to remove it to decision for surgery. Glad you are well and very blessed.
B, thank you for reading and taking the time to respond. My point was that sometimes when we ask God for a certain specific thing, God determines to do something different so He can keep us in the “waiting period” long enough to draw us closer and show us a new side of Himself or help us sense His presence in a more profound way. I prayed for removal of that mass WITHOUT surgery but God did incredible things during the time that the cancer scare came back and I had to wait an additional three more months for that surgery. I had precious phone calls with my aging dad, received so much love and support from my Christian friends, and sensed God’s presence like never before. I learn so much during uncertainty and now I realize every day is uncertain and trusting God through every bit of it is necessary, not just an option. Sometimes God cares more about our relationship with Him (and what we learn through waiting or discouragement) than giving us what we immediately ask for. I’m grateful for His ways, not my own. Thanks again for reading. Be blessed as well.
Hello Cindi, I’m blessed to get your book called “When Women Walk Alone” it was given to me by a guest who came to the hotel I’m working in as a present. The book has been a blessing too because when I got it I was not on good terms with my hubby but the book has taught me how to stick however big the storm is. Now I want you to help me pray for my unbelieving husband to stop drinking alcohol and that God may open his heart so that he can get saved.
Hi Dorine, I’m praying that your husband will want to be controlled by God’s Holy Spirit, rather than alcohol, as Scripture commands. I am trusting Christ that your husband will develop a stronger desire for the Lord, than for drink. Please keep me posted, Dorine. Our God can do anything.
Cindi. I’m a pastors wife that literally feels like I am losing my faith because an ongoing source of pain in my family where for 20 years God feels silent. I have reached a place where I can’t pick myself up. I’m so depressed and disillusioned. I’ve done all I know to do and my soul is numb. Please pray for my family.
I am waiting on God for an answer and it’s not easy. My situation- my boyfriend- of 9 years- moved to South Carolina in July 2023 from our home town of Pennsylvania. Late in 2021- my mother became sick and she has several serious health issues and I became her sole caregiver. I became depressed and hardly had any energy most days. I neglected my boyfriend. He always wanted to move to South Carolina and he wants me to move there too and he said to bring my mother. She refuses. I am caught in this awful middle. I don’t want to lose either one but it looks like I will. I have been praying ever since he left. I’m anxious, depressed, even in despair. I just want to be with my mom and my boyfriend in the same state and for us all to be happy and at peace. Do I wait on God for a decision or make my own? Right now- I see no clear path and when I think about a decision- I’m paralyzed and immediately I feel stressed and nauseous.
Racquel, if you truly want God’s direction you will continue to wait on Him. When things don’t go as you wished, trust God and what He is allowing or not allowing. If your boyfriend is not coming around (and honoring your honorable decision to honor your mother at this time), I would recommend that you accept that as God’s direction and indication that this boyfriend is not one who can love you unconditionally and honor your intentions to care for your mom. Trust God even when you don’t like what’s happening. When we are praying and being obedient to God and things don’t work out with a boyfriend, that is often God’ way of protecting us from further hurt and sorrow.