It has been six years now. Six years of saving, of forms submitted to the housing scheme, of viewings where someone else’s offer came in first, of looking at land that turned out to have three owners and no title. Six years of hearing “your time will come” from people who already have their keys.
Meanwhile, life goes on. A cousin needs help moving. A friend’s roof needs fixing and he cannot afford a crew. The church is repainting the hall. Your neighbour, a widow, needs someone to carry her groceries up the steps. And somewhere in you a small, weary voice says: when is somebody going to help me with my house?
Paul’s word to the tired
Near the end of his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes a sentence that has held up many worn-out believers: “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9, NKJV).
We usually read it as encouragement to keep praying and keep believing for our own breakthrough. It is that. But look at the verse that follows: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10, NKJV).
The “doing good” Paul has in mind is not only personal perseverance. It is practical kindness to other people, especially fellow believers. Earlier in the same chapter he tells the Galatians to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). The harvest he promises grows out of a life spent sowing into others.
The temptation to close our hands
Waiting has a way of turning us inward. When our own need is unmet, it feels natural to guard our time, our money and our strength. Why spend a Saturday helping someone else’s house go up when yours has not started? Why give to the building fund when you are still renting?
Those questions are human, and there is wisdom in not neglecting our own responsibilities. Nobody should give away the deposit they have saved for years. But Paul hints at something deeper. The waiting season is not wasted time between prayers. It is sowing season. The good we do now, while our own need is unmet, is not taken from our future harvest. It is part of it.
What sowing can look like
Sowing into other households while you wait does not have to be grand. It might be:
- A Saturday morning helping a friend carry blocks or mix mortar.
- Sharing what you have learned about savings, mortgages or schemes with someone just starting out.
- Cooking for the family who has just moved into their new place and has no gas connected yet.
- Keeping your rented flat clean and in good repair, as an act of faithfulness to the landlord and to God.
- Praying, by name, for other people waiting for homes.
There is a quiet grace in this. When you help someone else lay their floor tiles, you learn things you will use on your own house. When you rejoice at a friend’s housewarming, envy loses some of its grip. When you carry the widow’s groceries, you become the kind of neighbour you will one day hope to live beside.
In due season
“In due season” is both comfort and challenge. Comfort, because it tells us there is a season; the waiting is not endless in God’s eyes. Challenge, because the season is his to set, not ours. Farmers do not reap the week after planting, and they do not dig up the seed to check on it.
The harvest Paul describes is also bigger than a house. It includes character formed in the waiting, friendships deepened by shared work, a faith that has learned God is good even before the answer comes. Many people who finally receive their keys say, looking back, that the years of waiting taught them how to live in a home well.
None of this makes the delay painless. It is right to tell God honestly that you are tired. The psalmists did, often. But weariness in waiting does not have to become weariness in doing good. Keep sowing. Keep helping. Keep hoping. In due season, you shall reap.
For reflection
- Has waiting for your own home made you less generous with your time or help? Where?
- Whose household could you sow into this month, in a small and practical way?
Lord, I am tired of waiting. You know how long it has been. Keep me from growing weary in doing good. Open my eyes to the people around me who need a hand, and let me sow into their homes while I wait for mine. I trust you with the season. Amen.
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