Bailey Newbern is a Ministry Assistant in Student Ministry at Liberty Live Church in Hampton Roads, VA. She is passionate about discipleship and leading up the next generation of girls, especially girls in middle and high school. She also specifically loves helping young girls and women navigate through depression, anxiety, and other mental health needs through scripture and prayer.
Throughout life, it seems as though I have always lived in a sense of anticipation. From one season to the next, I have always been anticipating what the next step would be, overflowing with excitement. As a high schooler, I couldn’t wait to graduate and go to college to finally study what I wanted. As a college student, I couldn’t wait to graduate and finally be an adult in the real world. As a young adult, I couldn’t wait to finally get married and start a family, which was what I knew God had always been calling me to do.
I believe God has placed these feelings of excitement inside of our hearts because He desires to prepare us for what He has planned for us. Throughout the Bible, there are many times when the Lord was preparing people for what He had planned for them. God prepared Gideon, Esther, and even Jesus, His own Son. The Oxford dictionary defines the word prepare as, “make (something) ready for use or consideration.” We are being prepared for a purpose! He wants to use us! The Lord places these desires in our hearts so that we will be used to further His Kingdom no matter what season we are in.
I have currently been in a season of engagement with my fiancé. We have done premarital counseling, read books, gotten advice from biblical role models in our lives, but we cannot wait to enter into this season of marriage and put into practice all that we have learned! But we will never get this preparation time back. We will soon be one, and this season will come to a close. Even though I am ecstatic to experience the new season, I am leaving behind a steppingstone that God carved and prepared for me to lean on during this season. God loved me and stood with me in this season, teaching me so many new things, and now He will step over into this next chapter to prepare me for what He will soon have next – and I cannot wait!
I also think that there is a special intimacy found in our relationships with the Lord during these seasons of preparation. We can only imagine the details that He has already set ahead of us. What will it look like? Where will I be? Who will I be with? The answers to the questions can seem endless, but our constant is our Heavenly Father who desires to be in close relationship with us along every step of the way.
What is God preparing you for? We can rest in knowing that it will be for our good and for His glory! We can love and enjoy the waiting as God is refining us and getting us ready for how He is going to use us in our next season.
