There is a young woman I think about sometimes.

She had been praying for one specific thing for three years. A door she needed opened. A season that needed to change. A particular prayer that she had prayed, in different forms, over and over, until she had lost count of how many times she had said it.

Three years is a long time to pray for one thing without seeing it move.

By year two she had started to wonder if God had just put her prayer in a drawer somewhere and forgotten about it. By year three she had started to wonder if the prayer itself was wrong, and if she should ask differently, or stop asking altogether. She had bargained. She had wept. She had tried to make peace with the silence. She had tried to make peace with the idea that the answer was simply no.

And then, almost without her noticing, something quiet happened underneath.

She was changed.

The person who was praying the prayer in year three was not the same person who had been praying it in year one. The thing she had been praying for had not come. But the woman asking for it had become softer, slower, more honest, more aware. She prayed differently now. She hoped differently. She had learned things in the long silence that she could not have learned any other way.

Then, in the quietest season of all, the door opened.

But by that point, she was not even sure she needed it the same way. She received it with gratitude, but it was no longer the only thing. God had answered the prayer, in a sense. But he had also, over three years, slowly answered a prayer she had not known to pray. He had been making her into the kind of person who could receive the first answer without being destroyed by it.

Read the verse.

“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” - Lamentations 3:25-26

Jeremiah wrote this while the city around him burned. He is not writing from a season of ease.

Notice what he does not say. He does not say the Lord is good to the one who gets his prayer answered quickly. He does not say the Lord is good to the one whose situation improves on schedule. He says the Lord is good to the one who seeks him in the waiting. The waiting is not the obstacle to the goodness. The waiting is the place the goodness happens.

The thing you are waiting for may not come when you want it. It may not come in the form you want it. It may be that the thing you are actually being given during the wait is something else entirely. Something being grown underneath the thing you can see.

The answer is often growing in you long before the answer arrives in your life.

YOUR ONE THING FOR TODAY

Think of a prayer you have been praying for a long time without visible answer. Instead of asking God to answer it today, ask him a different question: Lord, what are you growing in me in the meantime? See what rises.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

Father, I have been so focused on the answer I am asking for that I have not noticed the person you are forming while I ask. Open my eyes to the quieter work. Let me see what is being grown in me while I wait. And when the answer finally comes, help me be the kind of person who can receive it without being destroyed by it. Teach me to wait quietly, as Jeremiah said, for your salvation. Amen.

If something has been quietly growing in you in a long waiting season, I would love to hear it. Hit reply.

God bless you, my friend.

Become an official member of The LowKey Christian & get exclusive monthly devotional content, members-only store discounts, and direct access to the ministry.

Our Official Member tier offers monthly digital devotionals, 20% off everything in the store, and loyalty gifts that unlock the longer you're part of the family.

Our Inner Circle tier (strictly limited spots) adds a bespoke personally-written devotional, a physical welcome gift box, and lifetime Founding Trustee status - your name recognised as part of the ministry's foundation.

Visit The Official Store!

Every purchase supports this ministry and keeps The Quiet Word free.

eBooks: Known: Discovering Who God Says You Are, Faith Over Fear, Battle Ready, Locked In With God, 30 Days of Faith.

Merch: Hats, t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and other everyday pieces that wear the faith quietly. Designed with the same low-key spirit as everything else here.

Use code DEVOTIONAL at checkout to receive 10% off store-wide!

Been blessed by The Quiet Word?

We’re on a mission to put honest, Scripture-rooted encouragement into the hands of men and women who might never walk into a church - the quietly struggling, the drifting, the ones figuring faith out in the margins.

This devotional is free, and we want it to stay that way. If you’d like to support us to keep writing, keep sending, and keep reaching further a gift of any size helps keep it going for others.

Keep up to date & help us spread the word by connecting with us on our socials!

▶️ YouTube youtube.com/@thelowkeychristian
👍 Facebook facebook.com/thelowkeychristian
📸 Instagram instagram.com/thelowkeychristian
🎵 TikTok tiktok.com/@thelowkeychristian
📌 Pinterest pinterest.com/thelowkeychristian

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Interested in sponsoring The Quiet Word?

If you have a product, book, service, or ministry you would like to put in front of this community, I open a small number of sponsor slots each month. Honest fits only.

Feel free to reach out here: [email protected]