When I was in fifth grade, I was gifted a cute lip gloss palette. It was special because it was tinted and scented. I wasn’t allowed to wear lipstick, but this felt like cheating, because I could wear tinted lip gloss. I decided I’d save it for special occasions — the right moment that really warranted it. So, I tucked it safely away in my drawer.

One day, I went to grab it, and when I opened the lid, I saw that it was completely empty. It looked like someone had dug out all the lip gloss. I knew exactly who the “someone” was…my annoying little brother.

I screamed for my mom, ready for justice to be served. She called him in and asked,
“Why did you take her lip gloss?”

His little seven-year-old eyes grew wide. “I didn’t know it was lip gloss,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter, it’s not yours!” I cried. “What did you do with it?” I demanded an answer.

“I ate it,” he admitted. “I thought it was candy.”

I was so mad, but I couldn’t help but laugh as his face grew anxious, realizing he had eaten lip gloss.

In a funny way, God was trying to teach me something:

When we wait for the right moments, we actually end up missing the moments.

I wish that lesson had sunk in that day, but unfortunately, it’s something I’ve struggled with over and over again. I’ve waited for the “right moment” to use my God-given gifts. I’ve procrastinated my purpose many times because I wanted everything to be perfect.
So many of us fall into that same trap, don’t we?

We tell ourselves:
“I’ll start obeying when things calm down.”
“I’ll forgive when they apologize.”
“I’ll be generous when I make more money.”
“I’ll surrender when I understand.”

The truth is, many of us stay stuck in our brokenness and miss out on the abundant life Jesus offers because we’re waiting for the right moment.

In John 5, we meet a man who was also waiting for the right moment for his healing:

“After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’”
John 5:1–6 NKJV

This man had been waiting for the right moment for a very long time.

Imagine waiting every single day for the stirring of the water, for the angel to come, for the chance to be first in the pool — for thirty-eight years! Maybe, like this man, you’ve felt stuck in your situation, waiting for things to change, waiting for a miracle.

Jesus sees you. He knows your story. And He asks you the same question He asked the man by the pool: “Do you want to be made well?”

Do you want to keep waiting for the right moment, or will you respond and move now?
Because the right moment is the moment of your obedience.

Jesus healed this man, not by stretching out His hand or touching him, but by speaking a word that required faith and action.

“Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your mat, and walk.’” John 5:8

Faith looks like trying to bend knees that haven’t bent in 38 years. It’s trusting that God will give you strength as you roll your atrophied body over and push yourself up with your arms. And as you move, you begin to see God working in and through you, until you’re standing on legs that couldn’t carry you before.

James reminds us: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24 ESV).

Faith isn’t just believing God can; it is moving in obedience, believing He will.

Your healing, your freedom, your breakthrough — it’s waiting on the other side of your obedience.

So often we’re waiting on God to move, but God is waiting for us to move, even when it’s not easy and certain.

Friend, if you are like me and get stuck in life waiting for the right moments, pray this with me:

Lord, help me not to wait for perfect moments, but to trust You and move in obedience today.

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