It was one of those days. The traffic seemed to move more slowly, the internet was taking its time, and even the microwave wasn’t working to my timetable. Those I’d messaged during the day didn’t respond as quickly as I’d hoped, and God . . . well, don’t get me started!
Do you ever feel like the world is not keeping to your timetable?
“Lord, give me patience!” I mutter.
“I’m working on it,” He whispers, and we laugh together.
Patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit that we don’t seem to talk about much. Love, joy, peace are the ‘popular’ ones, but patience? We all want it, but it seems that in order to get it, we must experience the difficulty of waiting.
The Bible portrays many impatient people, and the results of their impatience were never good. Think of Abraham and Sarah. Impatient over God’s promise of a son, they took matters into their own hands with consequences that are still around today (Genesis 15-16).
How about King Saul, who didn’t obey God’s command to wait for the prophet Samuel before offering a sacrifice. He lost the kingdom because of it (1 Samuel 13:7-14).
We can’t forget the Israelites in Exodus 32, who got tired of waiting for Moses to come down from his mountain visit with God and made their own gods. That really didn’t work out well for them!
“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1 NIV). This psalm is credited to David. Did you know that it took approximately fifteen years from when David was first anointed to become king until he became king over Judah, then another seven years until he was king over all of Israel. Talk about patience! There were several times when he could have ‘helped’ God with His timing by taking the life of Saul, but he didn’t (1 Samuel 24,26).
“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord” (Psalm 40:4 NIV). David knew this truth. In what situation do you need to trust in God’s timing and patiently wait?
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