If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you know that God has continually shown me that His Word holds the answers to every issue I face and brings comfort to every conflict within me. Time and again, He reveals that what I’m searching for has already been spoken through Scripture. When Hebrews says that “the word of God is alive and powerful… exposing our innermost thoughts and desires,” it truly means it. God’s Word has a way of uncovering the very things we try to ignore, gently bringing hidden struggles into the light. One of the issues He has been faithfully pruning in my heart is something I’m sure many of us have wrestled with at one point or another: the fear of missing out. FOMO, as it’s often called, is defined as the fear of missing out on something (such as an interesting or enjoyable activity) that others are experiencing.
Over the past decade, I’ve gratefully and joyfully served as a bridesmaid to some of the best examples of wives God could have given me outside of His Word. At the same time, I longed to be the one carefully walking toward the altar—making a covenant with my Heavenly Father to honor, respect, and serve the man who would stand before me, weaving our lives together until two paths became one, as God ordains in marriage. As I look back through the prayers I once wrote, the pages hold both celebration and quiet apprehension—joy at seeing prayers for others answered in real time, and a lingering fear that perhaps God had finished answering prayers like the ones I had written for myself. Across many of those pages, the fear of missing out is plainly written. Yet as the years have passed and those desires go unmet, my hope sometimes dwindles. But even in this season of waiting, God began drawing my attention to specific verses to bookmark.
In both the Old and New Testaments, God began to call attention to specific verses for me to bookmark, most of them from the Psalms. Psalm 25:1-2 begins, “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.” Psalm 27:13-14 then reveals the extent of God’s goodness, showing that it can be experienced “in the land of the living,” and that our hope in Him is not without purpose. I was led to 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, which reminds me that God is the God of all comfort and the Father of mercies. In His kindness, God did not stop there but led me to 1 Timothy, where Paul’s experience demonstrates how God’s mercy displays His perfect patience. These verses, along with Psalm 4:3-6—which I was led to after 1 Timothy—prompted a thought-provoking question: what if God, in His sovereignty, allows me to wait so that He can reveal to someone else a facet of His everlasting, consistent character? As a believer, a revelation of who God is should matter more to me than the timing of my desires.
As I reflected on these passages, the two-edged sword, the Word began to expose my heart, revealing that my view of God’s character had become distorted. In the depths of despair over unmet desires, I had begun to see Him as unbelievers often do—like a distant observer, arbitrarily allowing and watching my suffering. Yet even amid my misperceptions, God remained faithful. He continued to pursue my heart through His Word, gently correcting my understanding and reminding me that His character does not change, even when my perspective does.
In the waiting, God has shown me that any desires of His people—whether for marriage or other longings—are not overlooked. All the verses I’ve collected over the years, even the ones specifically for my “FOMO” moments, remind me that waiting is not wasted. My prayer is that these truths encourage you too: whatever you are waiting for, your heart and your desires are safe in God’s hands, and no one who waits for Him will ever be put to shame.