It’s early in the morning when golden edges of sunlight tippy-toe around the fringes of the horizon. I look out our picture window and take in the view of snowy housetops and tree lines, a lovely snapshot of January beauty. In Colorado, winter stretches its arms and settles in a good long while.
Making myself at home on a corner of the sofa under a fleecy blanket, I take several sips of my chai latte, begging it to wake me up. In all honesty, part of me would be happy going back to bed and sleeping till spring. But in Colorado, spring is a long time coming.
In my own heart, spring feels far away too. Like the weather outside, for my foreseeable future, a few particular circumstances look like the same ol’ same ol’, a little too cold and dark for my own liking.
You may or may not know I lived much of my life unfriendly to change, and I’ve worked hard to see it in a more hopeful light. But what can be just as hard to deal with is desperately wanting a change, needing a change, yet waking up day after day to the same ol’ same ol’ undesirable circumstances.
If that is you on this January day, I humbly offer you this prayer as a gift. May it help you glimpse the Lord’s hope-filled plans for your future.
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A Prayer for Those Longing for a Change
Father, You know the change I long for, both in my environment and in my heart. You know it, but I want to talk with You about it just the same. Because when I get real with You and tell You my concerns, You know I feel really safe in Your presence.
You know I’ve hoped a change was close, and You know my devastation when that hope falls through my fingers like water.
When I feel sad and scared that what I long for is not what I see, help me catch sight of Your hopeful vision for my future. Help me trade my unbelief for more robust faith in You.
Lord, I confess my attempts to boss You around, to want to strong-arm You into action.
I acknowledge my sullen behavior at You and those around me when things don’t go my way.
I’m sorry for thinking You might have dropped the ball on this one.
I’m sorry for not fully trusting You, Lord Jesus.
Help me forgive myself and others whose poor decisions led me here. Help me refuse to hit the play button on old history, instead finding fresh air in the brand new things You assure me You’re doing.
As I wait in this long middle between what I see and what I hope to see, may I be a time-user and not a time-waster. May I pause to count the ways You show up for me day after day after day.
Help me find the wonder in waiting.
Help me know that waiting time isn’t wasted time. Open my eyes so I may get down under things, to use my hands and heart to find what You’ll have me find.
May I sit in Your presence, stand on Your promises, and move in Your sacred love.
Help me make what I want to do be what is done.
I forget that You could never forget about me. You’re just waiting for the right moment to get me where I’m going.
May trusting in You and believing in You be my strength and my song. Because You don’t settle for what’s good for me. You send what is always, always best for me.
Thank You for sending us Your Son, the ultimate proof that You follow through on the change we need.
In the loving name of Jesus,
Amen.
Change is complicated, isn’t it? If the middle of your January finds you facing a time when not changing is the change or a different kind of difficult change, perhaps our #2016changechallenge can help. It began this past Monday, but you can still join and receive meaningful encouragement for your personal season of change. Read more about it here and sign up for it here.
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Kristen,
Sometimes when God brings change into my life…I am too quick to jump on the horse and say, “Okay, God let’s get going!” I’m ready to dive in and move forward and in the meantime God is saying, “Hold on there little one…not so fast.” I’m not long on patience. Change, waiting, pausing, are all in God’s vernacular to mold us and change us into the image of Christ. Lord, give me patience to go with God’s plan and not forge ahead with my own. Thanks Kristen!
Blessings sweet friend,
Bev
Patience and I aren’t always simpatico, so your prayer is my own. Thank you for your words here, Bev. xo
Thank you. Winter. Foreclosure or sale. Knowing where He’s sending us. Not knowing the in between parts. Waiting for my first baby girl to see her husband’s last breath, while i’m living six hours away with high needs kids in the house. I know something about waiting.
Oh my, yes you do. You know the hard, excruciating wait. May today bring you tangible hope in a way that speaks directly to your circumstances and your heart, dear one. That’s what I’m praying right now. So much love to you.
Ah, you touched on a very real aspect of my behavior: “Help me forgive myself and others whose poor decisions led me here. Help me refuse to hit the play button on old history.” Living in regret, and letting that regret affect my interactions with others and my relationships is not living in the gospel. Thank you so much for this reminder. xo
It’s a hard thing, isn’t it Christan? For me, it’s only through prayer that I can make it happen. Thank *you* for your good words here.
Really struggling with wanting change to happen in my life for good. So many years praying for a husband to love and be loved and do life with. It’s so hard to feel like I won’t get to the end of this year and all my circumstances just be the same. I’m tired and defeated.
Louise, I can hear the sadness in your words, and I’m just so sorry. I don’t know what the end of this year will bring you, but I know that God is close to you, even as the view you hope to see is far away. I’m praying the above prayer out loud for you right now. May God provide you today with a fresh sense of His follow through. *You* are wildly loved, Louise.
Thank you so much for your words and your reply Kristen. Keep writing you have a gift xx
Oh Sister, I’m right here with you. Praying for your heart’s desire even as I’m asking (yet again) for the same…
Oh KC, Ive only just seen this. Thank you for standing with me. Its horrible isnt it. Praying for you too xx
Thank you, thank you! My season of waiting has been so very long. Your words let me know that God has heard my heart’s cries. Thank you and Praise God!!
Much love to you, Michelle!
Just signed up for the change challenge. A bit late. Wanted you to know Dayspring says it’s out of stock with the book.
Thanks for the heads up, Shelly!
Oh my stars, the imagery you bring with not coming out of the dressing room…YES. Thank you for that!
This captures it all, Kristen: “May I sit in Your presence, stand on Your promises, and move in Your sacred love.” This is my prayer, that I slow to sit, be strengthened by His Word and step out in the Love that leads me. I’m putting this on my fridge to remind me. Thank you.
Kristen, I loved your prayer. Being in a time of waiting for change can be a challenging place to be. Your prayer is so encouraging. I’m learning to trust and choose contentment in the waiting.
And this? “As I wait in this long middle between what I see and what I hope to see, may I be a time-user and not a time-waster. May I pause to count the ways You show up for me day after day after day.” This spoke to me right where I am. I want to be a time-user, not a time-waster. Such wise words here. Thank you, Kristen.
P.S. I love Colorado winters. 🙂 There’s always the hope of spring. 😉
Man am I sick of waiting what I am even more disgusted with is about how gods trials harm lives and cause unecessary drama
!
Joanna,
I’m so sorry that you feel this way and pray that you can see things in a different light.
Penny
Joanna,
I feel badly for you and just wanted to help you to try to understand, God doesn’t create unnecessary drama. The drama creates itself with help from us. But He is there for us when the drama unfolds. He has been there for me more times than I can count and I know this because there is no way I could of made it on my own. He is there for you and will carry you through.
Penny
Joanna, I can tell you’re straight up mad, and I’m sure you have good reason to be. I’m so so, sorry for what you’re enduring right now. I don’t know what your situation entails, but I do know Jesus stands close by, wanting to take all that’s burdening you. I know He loves you like crazy and wants to ease your burdens.
I’m praying now that you feel His presence like never before. I’m praying God sends you people intent on loving you well, people who leave the drama behind. And I’m praying you know in the hurting places how wildly loved you are.
Thanks for really sharing in the realest of ways here, Joanna. So much love…
Kristen, Thank You.
Kristen,
Thank-you for this prayer, what a sweet way to start off this day.
I have found change can be hard, but sometimes so was not changing. Now I’m trying harder to focus on the present moment, enjoying it while it lasts. I think that sometimes the Lord wants us to hold still. And when we don’t know what it is we’re supposed to change maybe it’s His way of saying,”Everything is fine the way it is.”…Even if to us it seems hard.
Take Care everyone,
penny
I needed that! ♡
I’m still mourning and hurting over the unwanted changes in my life 4 years ago (exhusbands infidelity and the resulting loss of my marriage, home and job), and the fear and lack of faith for my future.
I have 2 months to get a job, vehicle and find a place to live.
I’m reading “Girl Meets Change” now, currently in chapter 3. And I’m loving it.
Blessings to you ~♡
Lela
Kristen,
I dig in my heels to change. I want “all of my ducks to be in a row.” Everything must be planned and follow the correct order – so says my OCD, Perfectionist tendencies. I had gotten to the point of seriously needing and wanting change and just as seriously working towards it. A very difficult proposition for someone entrenched in a rut, and a hard core “preservationist” (AKA almost a hoarder). Your prayer – many lines of it – was mine. In August, my father passed away, and one part of the rut chain was broken. I continued working on my attitude and striving towards change in all of my life. In November, I realized I just couldn’t do it any more and I could no longer discern what was truly keepable and what should be tossed. Now, in 2016, all of my New Year’s resolutions (past and would-be present) became facts instead of resolutions. You see, God took care of ALL my “to do” and “to change” list on December 26th with an F-4 tornado. Even my attitude. It has been amazing as I see God in everything around me along with the peace that passes all understanding in me, in the constant movement that drives me crazy, in the displacement, in the new friends. I see God in the way so much of my house and “stuff” were preserved in the damage when others around me were totally destroyed, even in the timing that day. My longing for change has been given to me as a gift in a difficult way, but I can truly truly say: it is well. That is even the better gift: knowing for a fact that “it is well.”
Thanks Kristen, Thank you for this message and prayer. I am in a dark hole in my relationship and I need God to do a miracle. My husband and I always seem to be on opposing sides, rarely in agreement. This is not the life I want and I feel warn out going around the same mountain. We are so unequally matched or even unequally yoked in so many ways. I wanted a better life for my children than what I had growing up with my parents. Actually I wanted a better life for myself too.
I have prayed and had counseling and I feel in myself I have just given up And I’m just enduring for the kids. I read all the time people refer to their husband as their best friend. I don’t have that, there is no intimacy. It’s like having a flat mate, except I am reliant on him for my very existence as I have no source of income as I am a stay at homewife. Please pray I feel trapped…
Oh my Lord, this is GOOD!!!! JUST what i needed, thank you!!!!!!!