Teach Us To Wait

Lord of every season,

You are never hurried.

Never late.

Never absent.

You hold time in Your hands,

and yet we confess how hard it is for us to wait.

We want quick answers, instant healing, immediate change.

But You invite us into a slower way.

A deeper trust.

A waiting that is not wasted.

So we pray:

Teach us to wait, Lord, until waiting becomes worship.

When trials weigh heavy and the nights feel long,

teach us to trust that suffering produces perseverance,

perseverance produces character,

and character produces hope.

Let our waiting be more than empty time —

let it be holy ground where You are forming us.

We lift up a world in waiting.

We pray for peace in places torn by war.

We pray for justice where oppression still reigns.

We pray for food and water in lands of deep scarcity.

We pray for reconciliation in communities divided and in hearts grown cold.

Remind us, O Lord, that You are present in every place,

at work in every story,

and faithful in every waiting.

Teach us to wait, Lord, until waiting becomes worship.

We lift up Your Church —

This community, this family, this people You have called to be strong and courageous.

We thank You for the Body of Christ at The Woodlands campus, the Montgomery campus, the Creekside campus.

We give thanks for Church at Woodforest, and for the churches beyond our walls —

For Connect Church, Restoration Church, Hope Church,

and all the congregations who proclaim Your love and walk in Your way.

And now, Lord, we pause to lift before You those we love —

family, friends, neighbors, coworkers —

each one in their own season of perseverance, their own refining, their own story.

For those waiting for healing…

For those waiting for hope…

For those waiting for answers…

For those waiting for peace…

Be their strength.

Be their sustaining grace.

And for us, Lord, in every delay, in every unanswered prayer, in every weary hour,

make our waiting an offering to You.

Shape it into trust.

Shape it into surrender.

Shape it into worship.

Teach us to wait, Lord, until waiting becomes worship.

And now, with faith in Your promises and hope in Your timing,

we pray together the prayer Jesus taught us:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,

and the glory, forever. Amen.