Pause and Pray

Have you ever felt like God asked you to do something…
gave you an assignment…

But then it doesn’t work?

At least not in the time frame you thought it would.

Time has a funny way of breaking down our beliefs.

You feel like God asks you to leave your job or start a business…
But then your finances go backwards.

It’s easy to question whether you heard God right.
Whether you made a mistake.

God asks you to step back from a client, a project, or offer.
But then business dips.

And there’s that question again:

Did I make a mistake?

The confidence you felt right after the word
starts to fade the further you get from it.

We see this in Abraham.
God tells him,
“I will make a great nation from you.”

What a word. Clear. Strong. Full of promise.

But then… time happens.

I can imagine Abraham thinking,
“God, You said You would make a nation out of me…
but my wife can’t even get pregnant.
How is this going to work?”

And today, it looks like this:

God says start the business.
Or change the direction.

So you do it.

And then…

Nothing.

I’ve prayed this more times than I can count:

“God, I thought You said to do this.
I did it… and nothing is happening.
How is this going to work?”

This distance becomes deafening.

The word fades.
And the grasping starts.

Not always toward something obviously wrong…

But toward something that feels reasonable.

Available.
Even spiritual.

I’ve found myself reaching for:

Another word.
Confirmation from people.
An answer to fix the problem.

My focus shifts.

I stop holding onto the promise…
and start searching for solutions.

Abraham did the same thing.

Hagar was there.
She could have a child.

It made sense.

So he moved ahead of God…
and solved the problem on his own.

There’s another story that’s less talked about…
but it cuts just as deep.

In 1 Kings 13, a man of God is sent on a specific assignment.

God gives him clear instructions:
don’t eat, don’t drink, don’t go back the way you came.

He does everything right.

He delivers the word.
Refuses the king’s offer.
Starts heading home.

Then an old prophet finds him.

Confident.
Convincing.
Spiritual.

And he says,
“An angel told me your instructions changed. Come back with me.”

They hadn’t changed.

The man of God had already heard clearly.

But he was tired. The mission was done. And someone else sounded just as sure.

And somewhere in that moment of fatigue and noise, he stopped trusting what he already knew and he listened to someone else's confidence.

He outsourced his clarity.

But here is what I am learning…

It's not always a problem to be solved.
Sometimes it's that you are being formed. 

The time is the solution.
It's just that the timing is not what we want.

And in that gap — between the word and the fulfillment —
the grasping starts. 

Not always toward something obviously wrong.
Often toward something that looks right. 
Reasonable. 
Available. 

Some friends of ours that I respect deeply once told us:
“We try never to make a decision without pausing and praying.”

I wish I could say that I always do that.
But I don’t.

And I am realizing…
That's the posture God is inviting me into.
That's true dependency. 

Not rushing to solve.
Not scrambling for clarity.

But bringing it back to Him…
before I move.

If the man of God had paused—
just for a moment—
and said,
“Let me take this back to the Lord…”

everything would have been different.

But that pause has a cost.

It feels slow.
It feels awkward.

Sometimes it means standing still
while someone confident is standing in front of you offering answers.

Because here’s the reality:

We can’t make anything happen.
But God can make anything happen.

And He sees more than we do.

So it won’t always happen
when we want…
or how we expect.

Obedience—and eventually fruit—
comes from learning to stay close.

To trust Him step by step.

To return to what He already said
before reaching for something new.

Pause.
And pray.

The word He gave you is still true.

Even in the silence.
Even in the noise.
Even when someone else sounds more certain than you feel.