40-Day Challenge to Wait Well

By Darla Butterfield May 6th, 2025

My phone buzzed and I eagerly read the text from my husband following his much anticipated second job interview.

The interview went great…but we’re going to have to wait awhile to find out if I got the job or not. The hiring manager will be gone for two weeks, and they are still interviewing a few more people.

Ugh. I was hoping for a quicker response and not MORE waiting.

I sighed in frustration as I imagined the weeks of waiting ahead. The unknown, uncertainty and questioning why God was continuing to allow this process to drag on filled my thoughts. I realized I can’t control my circumstances or how long this wait will be, but I can control how I wait.

I recently read the story of the Israelites waiting while Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days and nights as he received the Ten Commandments from the Lord. The people became impatient, took matters into their own hands, and made a Golden Calf to worship.

“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” Exodus 32:1-2

The Israelites did not wait well. I don’t want to be like the Israelites. I want to wait well… but what would that look like for me?

I don’t know how long my wait will be until my husband hears back about the job. I began to ponder the concept of waiting forty days. What if I intentionally take that time to wait well? Regardless of the exact timing of when my husband will get a job, I know that if I spend time with the Lord each day, focused on what God may be speaking to me through His Word during this season, at the end of forty days I will have grown in my relationship and trust in Him.  

I marked off forty days on my calendar, opened my Bible and journal, organized some pretty pens, and got started. I now had a mission. I was determined to wait well, and I was starting on Day 1 of 40.

Each day I pay attention to when I’m reading Scripture, whether it’s the daily verse on my Bible app, my homework for my Bible study, or any time I open my Bible. What is God speaking to me that I want to write down and remember that day?

I’m now on Day 14 and I’m amazed how I’ll notice common themes of waiting with hope, trusting God, His faithful character, or how He provides, and those words are exactly what I need in that moment. It calms my fears, keeps my eyes on Jesus, and helps me remember that there’s purpose in the waiting. I may not see what God is doing behind the scenes on the job front for my husband, but I can see the changes in my own heart as I wait well. God is using this waiting season to grow me. I know my waiting isn’t wasted.

Are you in a season of waiting? You can also take the 40-day challenge to wait well and see what God does in your life in the waiting!