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Lord, I come to you honestly today, because I am waiting on something I cannot hurry, and the waiting is doing something to me. I do not want to pretend it is easy or rush past what it costs. I bring you my whole self, the tired parts and the hopeful parts together. God, I set my hope before you without demanding a date or a deadline from you. I will not pretend this is simple. I feel the ache of asking how long, and I bring that ache honestly rather than hiding it. Even without answers on my schedule, I choose to cast my worries on you, because you care for me, and that is not a small thing to hold onto in the middle of waiting. Your word says in Psalm 13:1, “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever.” Even in that honest question, Lord, I trust you have not turned away from me. Lord, I will not pretend the waiting has left me untouched. There is discouragement in me, there is restlessness, there is a weariness that settles in the bones. I bring you my whole self, the tired parts and the hopeful parts together, and I ask for sustaining grace right where I am, not grace for some easier version of this. Steady my soul when it is disturbed within me, and meet me in the waiting itself rather than only at its end. And in Psalm 42:11 your word says, “Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God.” So I speak that same word to my own soul now, Lord, and ask you to steady it. Lord, I do not know how long this will last, but I know I am not carrying it unseen. Hold me steady, hold my hope honest, and keep meeting me here in the middle of it. In Jesus’ name, amen.