4 Signs All You Need to Do Is Trust God’s Timing and Plan

Sometimes God will say, “Get to work! Stop waiting! You need to take these steps I’ve told you to take and then I will do what you want me to do.”

At other times, however, you will have done what you can and the Lord will be telling you to just have faith and to wait.

So here are 4 signs the Lord is saying, “All you need to do is trust my plan and timing.”

1. If You Are After Something Only God Can Give You

Only God can give you a spiritually mature spouse. Proverbs 19:14, “House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.” Only the Lord can give you the material provisions you need. Acts 17:25 (NIV), “And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” Only Jesus can heal your heart. John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Of course this does not mean there won’t be steps of faith to take (James 2:17). But even the results connected to these steps are dependent on God’s timing:

• Habakkuk 2:3, “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
• 2 Peter 3:8, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
• Acts 1:7, “He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”

Thus, when you desire something only God can give, the only right response is to trust his plan and timing for you.

2. If God Has Told You What to Do But He’s Not Shown You Why You Should Do It

Sometimes you will know God does not want you to take that promotion even though the money would be great. Sometimes God will tell you to pursue that woman even though you sense she’s not interested. Sometimes God will tell you to give a man a chance even though you think you could never be attracted to him.

I’m not saying you should always do the opposite of what you want. I’m just saying there are times in life where God tell us what to do but we are not totally sure why God is telling us to do this thing (or not do this thing). It’s in these moments where we need to obey anyways.

Perhaps in a year, you will see that if you took that promotion, you would have been caught up in a huge business scandal. Perhaps after you pursue the woman you thought would reject you, she does reject you; but through this process you gain a new confidence not to fear rejection, which helps you pursue a different woman who ends up being your spouse. Perhaps you go on a date with a guy you are not attracted to, but you fall in love with his personality and character and over time your physical attraction grows. We won’t always know why God is telling us to do something or not do something. But we always need to trust his plan and timing. As Romans 8:27-28 explains:

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

3. If the Waiting and Trusting Is Doing You Good

But how will you know if you are just waiting for something God never told you to wait for? Many people wait for years for a certain person they believe is their future spouse, but they wait in vain and they never marry that person. Sometimes God is not telling you to wait for the promotion but rather he’s telling you to look for a different job entirely. How will you know the difference?

Lamentations 3:25-26 states, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” If the waiting is not doing you good, you are not waiting on God. You could be waiting and trusting, but you could be waiting and trusting in something besides God’s counsel to you.

When you wait and trust God’s plan, Lamentations 3:25-26 promises good will occur.

4. Your Image Will Be Transformed

How will you know, though, if the waiting and trusting is doing you good? Sometimes we don’t know what is good for us. Sometimes it takes time to see the good. This is why we can’t look at material blessings, relationship blessings, or even just how we feel. Rather, we need to look at the effect the waiting is having on our obedience to God.

Is waiting increasing sin in your life, laziness in your heart, or animosity towards others? This is not good, thus this is not God telling you to wait. But if this waiting and trusting is shaping you more into the image of Jesus, then this is God.

While Romans 8:28 promises us that God will do good for those who love him, Romans 8:29 expresses what that good is, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

Therefore, if the waiting and trusting in God’s plan is conforming you more into the image of Jesus, you know this is really God telling you to just keep waiting and trusting his plan.