With a Subtitle: When fear borrows the language of faith, our own delay can feel like obedience.
A brief Excerpt: Not every delay is God's timing. One believer's honest reckoning with how fear can hide behind the language of faith, and why obedience so often comes before the clarity we keep waiting for.
Editor’s note – We are running this piece because it names a trap that quietly snares sincere believers: dressing our own hesitation in the language of faith and calling it God’s timing. Joseph writes from experience, not from a pulpit, and that honesty is its strength. Scripture does call us to wait on the Lord, but it never confuses waiting with avoiding.
I was 16 when someone at church told me that if God wanted something to happen in my life, He would make it happen.
I held that belief for years.
Then one afternoon, sitting alone with a decision I had been avoiding for months, I realized something that still unsettles me.
I had been calling my fear “waiting on God.”
And I honestly couldn’t tell the difference anymore.
For most of my life, I thought faith looked passive.
Pray.
Wait.
Trust.
Repeat.
Whenever I felt stuck, I assumed God was teaching me patience.
Whenever nothing changed, I assumed God was saying “not yet.”
That explanation worked for a long time.
Until it didn’t.
Because eventually I had to ask a question I didn’t want to ask:
What if some of the delays in my life weren’t coming from God at all?
What if they were coming from me?
The Belief That Kept Me Comfortable
I liked the idea that God controlled the timing of everything.
Not because it made me trust Him more.
Because it protected me from responsibility.
If God was delaying things, then I didn’t have to examine my own hesitation.
If God wasn’t opening doors, then I didn’t have to admit I was afraid to knock.
Looking back, I can see how convenient that belief was.
It allowed me to stay exactly where I was while still feeling spiritual.
I wasn’t lazy.
I was “waiting.”
I wasn’t afraid.
I was “seeking confirmation.”
I wasn’t avoiding action.
I was “being wise.”
It’s amazing how often fear can borrow the language of faith.
That realization still makes me uncomfortable.
Editor’s note – This is a hard mirror to look into. Jeremiah 17:9 warns that the heart is deceitful above all things, and few deceptions are as comfortable as the spiritual-sounding excuse. Naming it out loud, the way Joseph does, is the first honest step toward repentance.
The Stories I Never Noticed
The strange thing is that the Bible stories I grew up hearing were never really stories about waiting.
They were stories about obedience.
Noah built before there was rain.
Abraham left before he knew the destination.
Moses walked toward the sea before it opened.
Peter stepped out of the boat before he knew whether the water would hold him.
I had heard those stories hundreds of times.
But somehow I always focused on the miracle.
I rarely focused on the step that came first.
The uncomfortable step.
The step that made no sense.
The step that looked foolish from the outside.
Maybe that’s because miracles are inspiring.
Obedience is demanding.
It’s easier to admire Noah than to become Noah.
It’s easier to celebrate Abraham than to leave your own version of home.
I think that’s what I got wrong.
I thought faith was believing God could do something.
But faith often looks like moving before you know how it will work out.
The Part I Still Don’t Understand
What happened next in my life wasn’t dramatic.
No sea split in half.
No angel appeared.
No voice came from Heaven.
Just a series of small decisions.
Conversations I had been avoiding.
Responsibilities I had been postponing.
Opportunities I kept talking myself out of.
And every time I obeyed something I already knew I should do, I noticed something.
The fear never disappeared first.
The action came first.
Then clarity followed.
That still confuses me.
I always assumed confidence would come before obedience.
Instead, obedience seemed to create confidence.
Researchers who study behavior change have found that action often creates motivation more reliably than motivation creates action.
I wish someone had told me that earlier.
I spent years waiting to feel ready.
Most of the meaningful things in my life happened before I felt ready.
Sometimes what we call waiting on God is actually waiting on certainty.
And certainty rarely arrives when we demand it.
Editor’s note – That obedience came before the clarity, not after it, echoes the pattern of Scripture. The priests carrying the ark had to step into the Jordan before the waters drew back. God often hands us the next step rather than the whole map.
The Difference Between Waiting and Avoiding
I don’t think waiting is wrong.
The Bible is full of waiting.
People waited for promises.
They waited for healing.
They waited for answers.
Sometimes waiting is obedience.
But not all waiting is obedience.
Sometimes waiting is avoidance wearing a church outfit.
That’s the uncomfortable truth I keep running into.
The older I get, the harder it becomes to blame every delay on God.
Some delays are mine.
Some opportunities passed because I hesitated.
Some prayers remained prayers because I never attached action to them.
I don’t say that with shame.
I say it with honesty.
Because I think many of us are carrying guilt for things God never asked us to carry and avoiding responsibility for things He did.
The balance is difficult.
I still don’t always know the difference.
I still wonder whether I’m moving too fast or too slow.
I still pray for clarity and often receive silence.
But I’ve noticed something.
The silence feels different when I’m already moving.
Editor’s note – The distinction Joseph draws here matters. Isaiah 40:31 promises renewed strength to those who wait on the Lord, but that waiting is active trust, not passive avoidance. Is our delay faith, or fear borrowing the vocabulary of faith?
What Stays With Me
A few years from now, I doubt I’ll remember every sermon I’ve heard.
I probably won’t remember every prayer I prayed.
But I think I’ll remember the moments when obedience cost me something.
The conversation I didn’t want to have.
The risk I didn’t want to take.
The apology I didn’t want to make.
The step I didn’t feel prepared for.
Those moments seem small while they’re happening.
Later they become turning points.
The image that stays with me isn’t a miracle.
It’s a person standing at the edge of something unknown.
Not fearless.
Not certain.
Not even confident.
Just willing.
And I still wonder how many things in my life I called waiting when God was quietly asking me to move.
A Word from the Editor
Joseph leaves us with the image of a person at the edge of the unknown, not fearless but willing. That willingness is what Scripture calls faith. James tells us that faith without works is dead, and Jesus said the one who hears His words and acts on them builds his house on the rock. We do not move to earn God’s love; we move because we already have it. If the Spirit has been nudging you toward a step you keep postponing, perhaps today is the day to stop calling it waiting.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Distributed by – BCWorldview.org