✝️ What are you becoming while you wait?

Good morning, my brothers! We’ve all been there: praying for years about something or someone with no apparent progress. A wayward child, a struggling marriage, a stalled career, uncertainty about your next chapter. God seems silent, and you wonder if He’s forgotten. Today we explore David’s fifteen-year gap between anointing and coronation and discover that the oft-precarious wilderness years aren’t wasted years. They’re preparation years. Your waiting isn’t punishment; it's formation. Let’s go!

This week’s manly topics (6-min read):

🌲 GROWTH Tom Petty said is right when he sang, “The waiting is the hardest part.” Why the wait? Why doesn’t God “just do it”? We look at David’s life for an answer.
📰  NEWS What did the lame guy Christ healed do immediately after his healing? He jumped … we think he was on to something from which we can learn.
 🔥 YOU ARE INVITED Our next MTM Digital Campfire is this Tuesday, September 9, at noon Eastern. See details below the article. LAST CHANCE - SEE YOU THERE!

GROWTH
Our Timing Is Not Always God’s Timing

I have been praying for years for three people whom I’m extremely close with to surrender their hearts to Jesus. They are amazing: kind, fun, successful in their own rights, and loving, but none have been touched by the Holy Spirit yet. In fact, there seems to be little interest at all in the things of God. It’s frustrating.

I’ve begged God to touch their hearts. I have asked Him to bring other Godly influences into their lives. I’ve debated with them, cried for them, and encouraged them. No response. In fact, it seems from my point of view that they're drifting further from the things of Christ.

I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed the years of waiting for God to answer my prayers. I’ve not always been patient or trusting that He is working, even when I don’t see it or understand it. I’ve tried to force it with them as well, in my way and in my timing, to no avail.

My guess is that there are situations you’re experiencing right now that are similar. A wayward adult child, a struggling marriage, the lack of meaningful work, uncertainty about what God would like for you to do with your “five loaves and two fish.”

God seems silent. You feel forgotten or lost. You wonder where He is and why He isn’t answering your prayers. It’s been weeks, months, even years, and … nothing.

Then last month, while studying 1st and 2nd Samuel, God revealed to me a powerful truth from the life of David that I haven’t much considered before. And it helped me better understand His ways and timing, His patience and my impatience, His eternal perspective and my “here and now” expectations.

The Preparation Years: When God Seems Silent

We all know the story from 1 Samuel 16, where God chooses David, a lowly teenage shepherd and the least likely of his brothers, to be the king of Israel. The oil ran down his head, Samuel’s words echoed in his ears, and the Spirit of the Lord filled David with power. It was a defining moment, one that could have changed everything instantly.

But it didn’t.

David didn’t march straight to the throne. He didn’t ride off to rule over Israel. Instead, he walked back into the fields to tend sheep, back into the shadows of obscurity, and into nearly fifteen years of waiting, hiding, running, and wondering.

Fifteen years.

Between his anointing and his coronation, David endured some of the hardest years of his life. He fought battles, hid in caves, lived as a fugitive, and often wondered if the promise God gave him would ever come true.

And yet, those wilderness years were not wasted. They were the preparation ground where God shaped David into the man and the king he needed him to be.

That’s not just David’s story: it’s ours too.

God’s Training Ground

David was thirty when he became king (2 Samuel 5:4). He was likely in his mid-teens when Samuel anointed him. That means about fifteen years of preparation stretched between God’s promise and its fulfillment.

Think about what happened during those wilderness years:

• He killed Goliath when he was still “just a boy.”

• He served in Saul’s court, playing music to calm a troubled king.

• He became a warrior, then the subject of Saul’s jealousy.

• He fled for his life, hiding in caves and foreign lands.

• He commanded a ragtag group of men who became loyal followers.

• He refused (twice) to kill Saul when given the chance.

All the while, the crown was still out of reach.

From a human perspective, it must have seemed as though God had forgotten. But those fifteen years were God’s training ground. They hardened David against pride, strengthened him in faith, and proved his character when shortcuts were available but forbidden.

God was saying: “You’re not ready yet. I'm making you ready.”

When God Seems Silent

Most of us know that feeling. You believe God has called you to something: a purpose, a role, maybe even a dream, and then ... nothing. Instead of doors opening, they slam shut. Instead of recognition, you feel hidden. Instead of blessings, you face struggle after struggle.

It's tempting in those moments to believe God has gone silent, or worse, that He’s absent. But the silence is not absence. The silence is formation.

Think of David in the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22). Alone, hunted, and in danger, he cried out to God:

That’s the prayer of a man who feels abandoned, but also the prayer of a man who chooses to trust when God feels far.

The silence wasn’t wasted. The caves became classrooms. The wilderness became a workshop.

The Men We Are Becoming

If you’re in a season of waiting, if life feels like wandering between anointing and coronation, you’re in good company. Every man God has ever used mightily has walked through the wilderness first.

Moses spent forty years in Midian before leading Israel. Joseph spent years in prison before standing in Pharaoh’s court. Paul spent years in obscurity before his missionary journeys. And David spent fifteen years in preparation before wearing the crown.

So the real question for us as men is not, Why is God making me wait? The better question is, Who am I becoming while I wait?

Am I growing bitter because I don’t see progress? Am I chasing shortcuts instead of trusting God's timing? Am I letting my character be formed, or am I resisting God’s refining work?

God is not only concerned about the destination. He’s shaping you into the kind of man who can carry the weight of the call when you get there.

Our Response in the Caves

So how should we live when God seems silent, when the promise feels delayed, when the waiting stretches on? David’s life gives us three clear responses:

1. Stay Faithful in the Small Things

Before David was a king, he was a shepherd. After being anointed, he didn’t despise being responsible for the sheep; he went back to care for them. He remained faithful in the small, unseen responsibilities.

Men, the habits we form in obscurity are the habits we will carry into visibility. If you’re not faithful with a few, you won’t be ready for more.

2. Refuse the Shortcuts

Twice, David had the chance to kill Saul and take the throne by force (1 Samuel 24:4, 1 Samuel 26:8). Both times he refused, saying, “The Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.”

He trusted that if God had promised the throne, then God would deliver it in His time.

Brothers, shortcuts may look appealing, but they only sabotage God’s best. A man of God waits for God’s way.

3. Seek God in the Silence

So many of David’s psalms come out of the wilderness years. He poured out his fears, frustrations, doubts, and faith before the Lord. He didn’t stop talking to God when God seemed quiet. He trusted God in the uncertainty.

We can do the same. Your wilderness season can either drive you away from God or deeper into His presence, forming a confident trust in Him.

The Throne Awaits

At thirty years old, after fifteen years of preparation, David finally became king. But when he sat on the throne, he didn’t sit as the boy Samuel had anointed; he sat as the man God had forged in the fire.

If God has you in a season of waiting, don't waste it. The silence isn’t punishment. It’s preparation.

The throne, whatever calling God has placed on your life, awaits. But when it comes, will you be the man who can carry it?

Reflection Questions

1. Where in your life right now do you feel like you’re in a season of waiting or silence from God?

2. How are you responding to that silence: are you growing bitter, or are you letting it grow your faith?

3. What “small things” has God entrusted you with right now? Are you being faithful with your “five loaves and two fish?”

4. Where are you tempted to take shortcuts instead of trusting God’s timing?

5. How can you deepen your prayer life during this season, following David’s example in the Psalms?

My brother, take courage. The waiting years are not wasted years. God is shaping you in the silence so you’ll be strong enough for the calling when it comes.

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