We live in a culture that hates waiting.
If something isn’t happening fast enough, we optimize it.
If progress stalls, we add a workaround.
If we feel overlooked, we find a way to be seen.
Through the Advent season (just a month ago), I commented on this. We feel like waiting is laziness. It just doesn’t feel right. “Do something!” is practically our national religion.
That mindset didn’t start with smartphones or side hustles. It’s as old as humanity. And we see it throughout Genesis 30. Leah has already experienced rejection in her marriage, competition with her sister Rachel, and the emotional roller coaster of being valued for what she produces rather than who she is.
By the time we reach Genesis 30:9–13, Leah notices she’s no longer having children. And instead of waiting on the Lord, she takes matters into her own hands. She gives her servant Zilpah to Jacob and says, in effect, Let’s keep this thing going.
9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.
12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
Genesis 30:9-13, New International Version
When Zilpah bears sons, Leah celebrates and names them Gad (“good fortune”) and Asher (“happy”). On the surface, it looks like a win. Momentum is back, and progress resumes. Leah feels something she hasn’t felt in a while: relief.
But underneath it all is a familiar human instinct: If the Lord has gone quiet, I’ll fill the gap myself.
Leah’s actions aren’t loud rebellion. They’re quiet control. She doesn’t reject the Lord outright. She just stops waiting on Him.
That’s what makes this passage uncomfortable: it exposes how easy it is to confuse activity with faithfulness. Leah still believes the Lord is involved; she just assumes it’s her job to make the outcome happen.
And honestly, that hits close to home.
We do this when we:
- Force relationships instead of trusting the Lord with our loneliness
- Overcommit our schedules to feel significant
- Chase success because silence feels like failure
- Create noise because waiting feels like weakness
Leah’s story reminds us that it’s possible to make measurable progress while spiritually drifting. You can gain something externally and still be grasping internally.
Dear one in Jesus, not every season of silence is a problem to solve.
Leah assumed that the pause meant something was wrong. And she needed to fix it. But sometimes the Holy Spirit’s silence isn’t absence; it’s invitation. Waiting exposes whether we trust Him for outcomes or only for opportunities.
If you can’t sit still when He slows things down, you’ll always try to manufacture meaning on your own terms.
Also, chasing “good fortune” won’t heal unmet longing.
Leah named her son Gad (“good fortune”) and Asher (“happy”). But names don’t change hearts. If affirmation, control, or productivity is where you’re looking for peace, you’ll never stop needing the next thing.
You see, the Lord doesn’t just want to bless your efforts; He wants your trust.
Genesis 30:9-13 doesn’t ask us, “What can you make happen?”
It asks, “What are you willing to wait for?”
Because sometimes the most faithful thing you can do isn’t to push harder, add more, or fix faster, but to stay put and believe that our Lord is still at work, even when the story seems stalled.
Waiting isn’t doing nothing.
Waiting is deciding Who you believe is really in control.
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