Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together.
Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Chapter 41 says this, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles and they will run and not get tired.
They will walk and not become weary. Hello friends. This is Dr. Joy with Joy Time filling in today on Truth Talk Live.
I'm so happy that you are sharing some of your day with me and that we can spend some time together because today we're going to talk about how in the world do we find joy when God says, Wait. Now remember, this is a talk show that we want you to call in and chat with me about what's on your heart. So our number is 86634Truth.
Those numbers are 8663487884. So let me ask you this question today. Have you ever prayed for something and it just didn't happen?
You wanted it to happen so fast and maybe it didn't even happen at all. You know, we live in this world of instant gratification, don't we? I love to use something like Instacart. Oh, I love it because all I have to do is go on the app and put in my grocery order, pay a service fee and a delivery fee and usually within like an hour and a half or two hours, my groceries, they just magically appear at my doorstep. That's the greatest thing.
Or maybe you've used something like Walmart Plus and you can go and order a lampshade or a bedspread and it will show up on your front porch. I tell you, we live in this society that if we have all these little apps and a little extra money, we can get what we need quick, can't we? Yet in our prayer time with the Lord, when we need him, when we're asking him for things, often he requires us to wait. And God's Word is full of scripture that talks about the importance of waiting for God, which is a little different in my heart than saying I'm waiting on God.
You see, one thing I want us to see is that God's timing is perfect and I want you to find that encouragement as we're hanging out today because I know that waiting is no fun. See, I'm a person. I like to go, go, go. I do not like to be slowed down. I do not enjoy long lines. I do not like to have to wait a long time because waiting can be hard.
It can be so difficult. And see, for you and me as Christians and we love the Lord, we're waiting for him. We're waiting for him to show us his will. We're not a genie that comes out of a magic lamp. We don't rub the lamp and him pop out and say, oh, your wish is my command.
Not at all. God is holy. God is perfect. And because he is perfect, his timing is perfect. But I wonder if you ever feel like maybe God is running late on your timeline.
Oh, my goodness, can I get an amen? I want things now. I want things yesterday. I do not like to wait. But I can tell you in my life when I have waited and there's a lot of prayers I've waited a really long time on, God will always show me that his timing is perfect. So here's my question for you to think about today. How do we trust him in those in between moments?
Hmm. How do we trust him when his timeline is not the same as ours? Because maybe you felt like I have. Maybe you've been praying and been praying and been praying and God is silent. He's not showing you. And maybe you wonder, Lord, do you hear me? Lord, are you listening? Lord, do you see me?
I have felt like that before. You know, our faith is a journey and God wants us to draw in close. He wants us to seek after him. And he promises when we're seeking after him with all of our hearts, we will find him. And I love that promise.
I love that promise. I've had some prayers in my life that I've had to wait decades for God to answer. And I think back to those times when I was in my prayer closet, which is just my walk in closet where I go and get on my knees before the Lord and cry out to him. I can remember and have I had this visual in my mind of moments where there I am on my face sobbing to the Lord.
Have you had those two? Do you know what I mean? Where you are desperate for God to move. You are desperate for God to speak into that situation that is so painful. You are desperate for him to do what only he can do. Yet you keep praying and praying and praying.
I know what that feels like. So I want us to think today and I want to give you some encouragement today about how do you find joy when God says, wait, how do you not give up? How do you keep praying? I read this verse in Isaiah Chapter 40.
Let's look at that again. Verse 31. Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength.
Now, I love wanting to have this idea of being a strong Christian. We will gain new strength when we wait for the Lord. They will mount up with wings like eagles.
They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. So let's talk about this idea of waiting for God and how important it is for your faith walk and my faith walk. So why do you think that God wants us to wait? Why does he ask us to wait? Why does he require us to wait? Well, here are some thoughts that I have about this.
First of all, we've got to remember that waiting does not mean that God has said no. I want you to write that down if you're able to take some notes today, because these are things that when life is hard and we feel that we are not being heard or seen by God, we need to remember truth. We need to write down truth.
It's so important for us to have God's word sprinkled around throughout our daily lives. Maybe on your bathroom mirror. Maybe you have it on your car steering wheel.
Maybe you put it in your phone and you set a reminder. But the enemy is after you, my friend. And the enemy wants to confuse you. And he wants you to get so discouraged in your walk with the Lord. He just wants you to quit praying. But God wants us to remember his truth. He wants us to stand on his word. And when we think about the armor of God, our offensive weapon, like what we use to fight back the enemy is the word of God. So we need to write down the word of God and we need to remember his truth. Waiting for the Lord does not mean that God is ignoring you. It doesn't mean that God is punishing you. And it doesn't mean that your prayers don't matter.
You see, waiting draws us closer to God. Now, can you think about a time where maybe you were waiting for a friend to show up? Now, I can think back to when I was waiting for my elementary school friends to come over to my house. Now, I don't know how old you are, but my age, I was loving the 80s. OK, I am. I am that old.
Yes, I am. In the 80s is when I spent most of my middle school and high school. I graduated in the early 90s from high school. So you got to remember this is before the Internet.
I know. Isn't that wild that there really was a time before the Internet? This is a time when you couldn't stream podcasts.
There wasn't even a thing called a podcast. And so that time in life, all you had was your telephone that was wired to the wall. I think about my childhood home. We had this yellow telephone that was wired to the wall in the kitchen.
And it was like a rotary phone that you had to dial the number. And so when my best friend, whose name was Rebecca, when she would come over to my house for a weekend sleepover, I was waiting on her. And there was such anticipation for the waiting. I'm so excited for us to talk about this a little bit more. Don't go anywhere, because we're going to dive deeper into God's Word and find how we can keep being joyful as we're waiting on and for God. Welcome back. I'm so glad you are still hanging out with me today. This is Dr. Joy with Joy Time filling in today on Truth Talk Live.
And we're talking about how do we find joy when God says wait. And right before the break, I was sharing with you about my childhood home and way back in the 80s, like in the century before in the nineteen hundreds. Right. That our telephones were wired to the wall. We did not have cell phones.
We didn't have Internet or any other ways to communicate. And my best friend, Rebecca, when she would come over for the weekend, she would let me know by the phone that she was on her way and I would stand at the kitchen window and I would be looking for her family's car to be coming to my house. I knew about how many minutes it would take from her driveway to my driveway, but I'm waiting for her. And there was something so exciting in my heart because she was on her way.
There was something so joyful in my spirit because I knew the fun that we were going to have and the great experience that we were going to have at our sleepover. And so when God is asking you to wait for him, you're praying about so many things in your life. Maybe you're praying about a relationship that's gone bad. Maybe you're praying about a health concern. Maybe there's something you're scared about. Maybe you're getting older in your life and you're a little fearful of what might be waiting for you down the road.
Maybe it's something completely different in your life. But as you're praying and you're asking God for your needs and the things that you desire, you're waiting for him and so you're looking for him that this waiting period is important. God uses the waiting to strengthen your faith. He uses the waiting to refine your character.
He uses the waiting to align your heart with his will. And, you know, there's something else that I've learned in my life and maybe you've learned it too. And I just want to encourage you to call in and chat with me today. Our number is 866-34-TRUTH or 866-34-877884.
So 866-34-87884. I'd love to hear one of your stories about you've waited on God and how he came through for you at just the right time. Because here's something else I've learned. That when I'm waiting for God, sometimes his requirement for me to wait is protection. That I don't step into something that I'm not ready for.
Do you ever feel this way? That maybe you have a project idea. Maybe you have a new idea for something you want to do in your life. Maybe it's start a ministry. Maybe it's to help start a new event in your community. Maybe it's something that you want to even build.
A community center. And do you ever get that big idea and you want it to be so big and you want it to be so big fast? Like you want that ministry to grow fast.
You want that business to grow fast. Well, the Lord knows that if it grows too fast, we're not ready for that. So sometimes he's requiring us to wait because he's protecting us from stepping into something that we are not ready for. Now I love this verse in the book of Psalms. It's chapter 27, verse 14. Listen to this.
This brings me so much encouragement. It says, wait for the Lord. I just think we need to say that out loud wherever you are.
If you're in your car or if you're listening from home or even if you're in your office today. Just to say out loud, I'm going to wait for the Lord. Because listen to the rest of this verse.
Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. We do live in this society of we want it now. We don't want to wait. I'm impatient sometimes and maybe even more than sometimes. I'm probably impatient many times.
But listen to this, my friend. Spiritual maturity requires that we wait. And when we wait, we've got to wait with the right attitude.
Oh, my goodness. Attitude is everything. We need to do an attitude check so many times when we get frustrated, when we get discouraged, when we feel defeated. We need to stop and check our attitude. Because one of the things that you and I can control is our attitude. But how do we do that? How do we do that when we're tired of waiting? How do we do that when we're beyond the sitting back and waiting?
How in the world do we change our attitude? Well, I'll tell you what helps me. It helps me to make a list of things I'm grateful for. It helps me to think about the goodness of God. It helps me to remember that God has blessed me so much more than I ever deserve. And for me to focus on Him and focus on His goodness. We don't always know what God's specific will for our lives is.
But here's what we do know, my friend. God's Word tells us that He is always, always at work. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't slumber.
He's always at work. And can I just encourage you today that if you're getting discouraged about waiting, if you're getting downhearted about looking for this answer that you've asked God for and it seems to not be coming your way, I want to encourage you to remember that God is working behind the scenes. You know, we can't see everything He's doing. God's ways are not your ways. His ways are not my ways. God's ways are so much higher. His thoughts are so much higher.
And so you really don't know how He's working behind the scenes because you can't see it. You can't see Him at work and because you can't see Him at work, the enemy tries to get you confused and discouraged and he lies to you by telling you that God doesn't hear and God doesn't care. But listen, we know that God has a good plan for our lives when we belong to Him.
If we are called according to His purpose, He is working all things together for our good. There's something exciting about that for me. When I am in the valley of life and things are just really crowding in on me and I feel like I can't breathe, do you know what that feels like?
Like you just can't breathe? When I stop and remember God's truth, wait a minute. Yeah, I'm waiting for this and I'm in a terrible season right now, but I'm going to choose to stand firm on God's Word that He is going to work everything together for my good and His glory. And here's the other truth of that, my friend, it takes some time.
It takes time for God to work out all the pieces of your life in His perfect will and all the pieces of His will for you, it takes some time to work that out. So I want to encourage you to be patient. I want you to have a patient spirit and I want you to have the right attitude. Wake up in the morning and before your feet hit the ground say out loud to the Lord, God, thank you for waking me up today. You gave me breath and you gave me a beating heart and you've given me the ability to live and make a difference and that says to me, Lord, that you are not done with me yet.
So thank you for this new day. And then I want you to ask God for this. God, help me not miss you in today. Help me not miss the opportunities that I have to serve you, to love you, to love other people, to lift them up, to encourage them. Now how in the world would our days change if we started it with that attitude?
It would change everything about our day because we would not start our day thinking about me, me, me, me, me. Lord, give me this. Lord, do this for me. Lord, change this person.
Lord, make my life easier. That's not a very good attitude. What if our attitude was focused on him? What if our attitude was expecting him and looking for him, looking for him to move, looking for opportunities to share joy with other people?
Let's think about our attitudes, especially in the waiting because our attitudes, hmm, they will make all the difference in the world. Thanks so much for spending some time with me today. This is Dr. Joy with Joy Time, and we're talking today on Truth Talk Live on how do we find joy when God says wait. So right before the break, we were talking about our attitudes and how that makes such a difference, how we need to have an attitude of gratitude, and when we start our day, we need to be looking for the Lord and thanking him for the opportunities that he's given to us. So as we are reading in this book of Psalms, chapter 27, I read this verse that said, Wait for the Lord, be strong, and take heart and wait for the Lord. So we see that David here is tying waiting with being strong because it does take spiritual strength to wait and to have the right attitude. Now, I love thinking about all of these accounts that we read in God's Word. There are so many stories about godly people that God required to wait.
Some of those are ones that you're very familiar with. You think about Abraham. He was 75 years old when God made this promise to him that he was going to make him into a great nation, but then we know that it wasn't for 25 years. Can you think about that? It was 25 years that he had to wait before Sarah would give birth to Isaac.
And you know this story. Sarah got tired of waiting. She got frustrated, and she thought, hmm, maybe I just need to help God out a little bit, and she gave her maidservant Hagar to Abraham, and all of that caused major heartache. So sometimes in the waiting, you and I might be tempted to rush things along. We might be tempted not to be still and wait for God to show us.
Instead, we want to make it happen because we can do it, right? Well, sometimes that just does not turn out the way that we intend for it to turn out, and we saw that with Abraham, God making this amazing promise to him, and then him needing to wait for 25 years. One of my most favorite accounts of the Bible and one of my most favorite people in all the Bible is Joseph in the Old Testament. Oh, I love the book. I love how we hear and read about Joseph in the book of Genesis. Joseph had big dreams.
Do you remember him? He had this coat of many colors. He was the favorite of his father, and so he had these big dreams, and he told his brothers about his dreams, and then his brothers threw him into a pit.
They sewed him into slavery. All of this, just awful things happened to him, yet he'd been given these dreams, these dreams that God gave to him, and 13 years passed before he began to see these promises of God being fulfilled. And here's what I think about in my own life. When my life doesn't look like the promise that I think God has given to me, I need to remember that he's still working behind the scenes. There's so many things we read in God's Word, and as we read those truths, not only do we just think about it at the moment, but we need to plant it into our heart.
We need to take his Word and hide it in our hearts, because when we know it and we live on it and stand on it, then when the enemy comes after us, we are armed and ready to fight back with the sword of the Spirit, which is God's Holy Word. Another account that we read about, and maybe this one for some of our listeners, really touches a soft and tender spot for you, is the story of Hannah. Hannah could have no children, yet her husband loved her so much, and her heart's desire was to have a child.
She longed for a son, and so year after year after year, she cried out, she waited, but God was silent for so long. There's so many women who can relate to Hannah, because they desperately want to have a child, and they're praying and they're praying and they're praying. And we know that God did answer Hannah's prayer, and he gave her Samuel. I love Samuel. My son's name is Samuel, so I'm very attached to this account in God's Word. Samuel is a great prophet.
We know that he goes and anoints David to be the next king, but we think about Samuel, and what we see is a praying mother, a mom who so desperately wanted a son, and she promised to give this baby back to serving the Lord. And so you see, another thing that you and I can learn from waiting is that it creates in us a heart of surrender. So what do we do while we wait?
Let's talk about that, because there's some things we shouldn't do, and there's some things that we should do. So here's one of the first things I want to remind you of while you're waiting. Whatever it is you're waiting for, I want you to keep praying.
Like, don't give up, okay? Keep praying. There's a prayer that I prayed for almost 40 years for my dad to be saved. My dad is an awesome guy, and I love him so very much, but growing up, he did not know the Lord. And so when I was saved at such a young age, I began praying for him, and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed, and I went to college and I would keep praying, and I got married and I prayed, and then my husband and I would pray and my children and I would pray, and we prayed and we prayed. And all the while, God was working behind the scenes on my dad's heart.
But it wasn't until he was 75 years old that he gave his life to the Lord. And so I want you to find encouragement in that to know that you need to keep praying and not give up. The second thing you can do while you're waiting is to serve. Don't just be sitting back and doing nothing in your faith walk. Serve the Lord. Teach a Sunday school class. Volunteer at your church. Be a part of a ministry. Whatever it is that God has gifted you to do, serve him right where you are. The third thing I want you to do is to be sure that you are obeying God in all things. Whatever your life is like, you want to obey. If you're a wife, you want to be a submissive wife to your husband.
You want to love your husband well. If you are a mom or a grandmother, you want to raise those children and teach those children the Word of God. You want to be a person who tithes to your church. You want to be a person who gives back and serves. Make sure that you are staying in the Word and you're obeying the Word.
If you have some unforgiveness in your heart for someone, obey the Lord and talk to him, asking him to help you forgive that person. While you're waiting, you want to obey the Lord. You also want to worship.
Oh my goodness. Now we can worship in so many ways. We can worship by cranking up that Christian music in our car, and we can worship when we're driving down the road. We can worship in our church services. You can worship while you're singing in the shower. But do you know what else you can do when it comes to worship? You can worship God while you're working. You can worship God while you're doing excellent work because the Bible tells us that whatever we do, do it with our whole hearts because we're doing that for the Lord. So if you're a young mom and you're staying at home and you're changing diapers and you are feeding babies and you're doing laundry, my friend, you are worshiping through your work. Make sure that your heart is positioned towards the Lord in all the work that you're doing. And when you go, maybe you have a job outside the home, and maybe you don't love your job, okay? I get that.
Totally. Maybe you don't love your job. But what if you changed your attitude and you remembered, wait a minute, I'm not really working for my boss.
I'm working for God, and he's placed me here in this season of life for such a time as this from the story of Esther, and I need to really focus my heart on working for him while I'm here. You also want to make sure that while you're waiting, that even though you can't see what God's doing, you're choosing to trust in him. You're trusting in his character. You're trusting that he is good and perfect and holy. You're trusting that he loves you. You're trusting that he is with you. You're trusting that he has a good plan for you. Now, I know often in seasons of waiting, life is hard, especially if you're listening today and maybe you're not doing so great financially.
And maybe you're waiting on a new job or you're waiting for something else to happen to bless your family financially. I know that those seasons are hard. But what I want you to remember, my friend, is that God is able. He is able.
That's something we should write down and remind ourselves of. There's nothing and no one more powerful than God. He is God, the one true God. And there is absolutely nothing in your life that he can't do. So while you're waiting, strengthen your heart. Read the Word of God. Stay in your Bible. Join a Bible study.
There's so many opportunities online. There's opportunities in your local churches. There are so many things here on the Truth Network that you can plug into and listen to. You can listen to credible Bible teachers right here. You can go to the website and you can download and listen and fill up your mind with Scripture, fill up your mind with the truth of God's Word. And when you know God's Word, then you can stand on God's Word.
So when the enemy comes at you and he tries to whisper all these lies into your mind, you can fight back and say, Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I know that that's a lie because God's Word tells me this. So when you don't understand God's timing, I want you to really get this today. When you don't understand God's timing, what you can trust in is God's heart. You can trust in his heart that he's faithful. You can trust in his heart that he's good.
You can trust in his heart that he's never going to leave you. And you can remember that he sent his only son, Jesus, to die a criminal's death because he loves you. He sent his one and only son to this earth to be spit upon, to be beaten, to be crucified because he paid for your sin and my sin. He atoned for our sin.
It was a rescue mission from heaven. And when you get discouraged about the things that you think are missing in your life, oh, I hope you'll turn your heart towards Jesus and remember that his grace is sufficient. He is enough, and he can fulfill all of your needs. And when you're confused and you're waiting and you feel unsure and you feel worried, focus on what he did for you on the cross.
And remember on the third day that tomb was empty, and so we as followers of him have everlasting life with him. Now that is something to be joyful about. Welcome back to Truth Talk Love. I'm Dr. Joy with Joy Time as we are talking about how do we find joy in the waiting. I'm so excited. We have Mike from Ohio calling in, and I'm so excited to hear from you, Mike. How are you doing today?
I'm doing awesome. I just thought I'd share something with you guys. You know, when I was growing up as a Christian and we would go on car rides, and my brother, he never stops talking. I mean, we thought he was going to be a preacher, and he did go to the college for it, but he became a Sunday school or a youth pastor for a while, but he never became a preacher, but he's doing what God wants, I know that. But anyways, he would never stop talking, and he always would say, Dad, are we there yet? Dad, are we there yet?
And I constantly said that, you know, constantly. And God led on my heart to tell you that it's okay to ask your father, Dad, are we there yet? That's a good word.
That's a great word for today. Yeah, and you know, it's not easy when you're wanting something from God, you just got to, you know, just rely on the Bible, rely on what you're taught, rely on what you said all day today. But you know, don't hesitate to say, God, are we there yet?
You know, how are we going to get there? I love that point because God is our Father, and I love the fact that we refer to him as our Heavenly Father, and we can go to him about anything, can't we? We can talk to him about anything. He can handle all of our questions. So yes, I love that.
I'm so glad you called in. I can remember being on those car rides myself saying to my parents, are we there yet? So we can ask the Lord, Lord, are we getting closer?
Are we getting closer? Because I'm still praying. Amen. And you know, I had psoriasis on my elbows for a while. And you know, my wife prayed for me, I prayed for myself, you know, and I prayed and didn't really, you know, didn't think about it too much. And I didn't want to go to the doctor's for it.
You know, I didn't want to go there. And all of a sudden, one time I looked up and somebody told me I needed to take pumpkin pills. And I took pumpkin oil pills. Oh my goodness. And it went away.
It went away just like that. And God led me to that. You know, I mean, he led me to that, knowing that knowledge. And then I found out over time with knowing that all the yellow vegetables in your life help your skin and help, you know, rejuvenate your skin. And I realized that the pumpkin pills were very good for your skin. And it really healed my psoriasis. And you know, I changed my diet. I kept praying and I kept itching. And I mean, I had it on my knees and elbows and it looked ugly, you know.
And my wife didn't want to touch me. Oh my goodness. You know, it was really hard. And I took some patience, you know.
I did. I kept praying about it. And I said, God, are you going to heal this yet?
What's going on, you know? And all of a sudden I took these pumpkin pills and, you know, God led me to that. And matter of fact, I Googled it.
God, what do I, I said, Google, what do I do for psoriasis? And pumpkin pills came up. Well, you know, I Googled that a million more times after that.
And it never came up again. So I'm wondering, I'm wondering if, you know, you know, if it was, you know, just this coincidence or that's what God, that's what the devil wants you to tell you. It's a coincidence. But you know, you know, when you know it's from God, it's from God.
Yeah. And I love how God can do anything and he can use anything. So thank you, Mike, for calling in. We're so glad to hear from you today. Thanks for your encouragement. Oh, you're welcome. All right.
Thank you. So we talked about before the first break on what we can do while we wait for the Lord. You know, we serve him. We stay in his word. All the things that Mike just also gave us a great refresher on, too.
We're so glad he called in. We need to serve others. We need to worship. We need to trust in the character of God. But let me also tell you, my friend, here are some things like you should not do when you're waiting on God.
And one of those and the biggest one that I want you to grab a hold of today is this. Don't compare your journey to someone else's. With social media, it's so easy for us to look at everybody else's highlight reels of their lives.
They're posting all of the wonderful things that are happening, all of the successes in their families. And if we're not careful, we'll see those things and we start to compare our lives to theirs. And then the enemy starts to whisper, hmm, wonder why God's not blessing you that way. And then this little seed of discouragement or even bitterness can start to grow.
We have to fight against that. I have learned in my life that comparison will steal my life of joy. Now, let me just dive a little deeper into this, because not all comparison is bad.
We have good comparison. When you have a godly friend in your life and that friend is really showing you so much fruit from their spiritual walk, that is someone that we should try to really emulate, someone that we might want to be doing what they're doing. If they've joined a Bible study, you might think, oh, I want to join that same Bible study. That type of comparison is really good. And even Paul talks about this in the New Testament.
He tells people to look at how the Christians are living, look at how they are handling social situations, and do as they do to teach them how to walk like someone who follows Christ. But then there's an unhealthy comparison, and you know what I'm talking about. When you start to look at someone else's life, you want what they have, you don't have what they have, and then that person becomes like an emotional enemy to you. You start to harbor resentment because they have something that you don't have. We need to guard our hearts from that type of comparison because all it will do is steal our joy. Bitterness is also something that can block your joy. If you have some unconfessed unforgiveness, you need to talk to the Lord about that.
Admit that to Him. Mike was sharing that you can talk to God and say, are we there yet? Are we getting there? God wants you to pour out your heart to Him, and so you can talk to Him about exactly how you feel. As we kind of wind down today on the Truth Talk live show, I want to give you a little encouragement if you are in a season right now of waiting and if you're just tired of waiting. Maybe you've listened today and you've been praying, and you just keep praying and you're wondering, Lord, how much longer do I need to pray? Maybe you've had hope, but you just keep hoping and you're not seeing the outcome that you want to see.
Maybe you're waiting and you've been waiting, and you're just frankly tired of the waiting. I want you to be reminded, my friend, that God does see you. He loves you.
He calls you by name. I want you to remember today that God is still writing your story. He has not stopped writing your story. I want you to remember today that He created you with a purpose in mind, and it wasn't just any purpose.
He created you with a good purpose, and He gave you a special gift or even multiple gifts that He wants you to use for His kingdom, and He is not finished writing your story. So I just want you today to be encouraged not to give up. Don't give up on praying for that person in your life who needs that prayer. Don't give up on praying for your marriage if you feel like your marriage is not where it's supposed to be. Don't give up on praying for that child who may have gone wayward and who might not be following the Lord right now. Don't give up on praying for your health concern.
And you know what else? I don't want you to give up on the dream that maybe you feel that God gave you, but you feel like you just buried it years ago. Maybe there's this dream of something that you think He wants you to do and you've prayed over it. I want you just to dig back up that dream and start praying on it again.
Start making some steps forward towards that dream. Ask God to open the right doors and close the wrong doors. I want you to know today, my friend, that God has not forgotten you. When He is delayed, it doesn't mean a denial.
It doesn't mean the answer is no. It's just for now you've got to wait. You are waiting for Him to do what only He can do. I can promise you that He's worth the wait. His plan is worth the wait. And so as you're waiting, wait with joy, wait with expectation, persevere and endure.
You know, we started today's show with this verse in the book of Isaiah, and I want to read it to us again because it's one verse that I think can bring us so much encouragement while we're waiting for the Lord. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31, it says, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired, and they will walk and not become weary. Like an eagle, you might feel a little grounded right now.
You might feel like you don't have the wind beneath your wings as the famous song says. But I want you to hold on to the hope in this waiting that God is going to help you soar. He has a great plan for you, and I don't want you to lose hope.
I'm so thankful that you joined in today on the Truth Talk Live. God is so good to us, isn't He? He is a God of hope. He is a God of love.
He is the God of peace, and He is the God of joy. And I hope that you can take some of these things we've talked about today. Persevering, get a plan for reading your Bible. If you're not reading your Bible regularly, I encourage you to make a plan and stick with it. If you're not praying regularly, I encourage you to make an appointment with God and keep it. Your faith in Jesus is the most important thing in your life, and joy is a gift from Him. You will only find true joy through Jesus. Thanks so much for tuning in today. I hope you have a blessed day, and we'll spend some time together real soon.
