Reflect on your own life during the past few days, considering those times when you have found yourself growing impatient. How do you think your understanding of time contributed to your impatience? Can you, for example, think of times when your impatience and frustration was rooted in your conviction that your time was your own? More specifically, can you recall times when you have grown impatient because people were not meeting your expectations or were not conforming to your timetable?
When we gather together each week, we need to remember that at the heart of the Christian story is a God who is patient, a God who works slowly and diligently over many generations to create a people who will, by their very life together, bear witness to that God.
This way of thinking has become so ingrained in us that it shapes the ways we think about the Christian life. As a result, many of'us find ourselves exceedingly impatient about Christian growth. Yet maturity takes time; fruit does not grow overnight. Cultivating a life in the Spirit is slow, painstaking work. But most of us (myself included) secretly long for the day when we will wake up and find that we have been instantly transformed.
In a similar way, those among us whose lives are increasingly dictated by their appointment books would do well to find creative ways of building in "slack" time.
A related issue that affects our life together concerns the "time consciousness" ness" that often places severe restrictions on our gatherings. Is it really conceivable that we will ever learn to be patient with each other when many of us gather to worship with one eye on the hymnal and the other on our watches?
God being "slow to anger." Indeed, a refrain echoes throughout the Old Testament: "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" (Ps 103:8; cf. Ex 34:6; Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 145:8;Joel 2:13; Jon 4:2; Nahum 1:3).
So this week, God decided to teach me some patience. We lost electricity and then the connection for phone TV and Internet. And the earliest the service provided could come was two days later.
See Believe, the chapter on patience for the wisdom of Solomon and Proverbs about patience, good stuff.
Is it possible to imagine a more stunning example of long-suffering than this: the Creator hanging on a tree on behalf of creation?
But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance .... Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. (2 Pet 3:8-9, 14)
the New Testament connects the virtue of patience with the practice of "bearing with" others in two powerful passages. Paul begs the Ephesians to "lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph 4:1-3).
This more fluid and flexible way of conceiving time was changed dramatically with the invention of the mechanical clock, a device developed in the West by Benedictine monks as an aid to their rigorous schedule of prayer and work. Ironically, this invention paved the way for viewing time as something other than a seamless, endless flow. Now time was a resource, something to be segmented, scheduled and managed.
Don't these devices merely enable us to cram those few extra moments with further attempts to justify our existence by being even more productive? In strange and subtle ways, therefore, many of these devices that were supposed to liberate us have instead contributed to our further enslavement. Rather than having more time, we feel as if we actually have less.
Patience is a willingness to surrender your private agenda and proceed on God’s timetable at the exact pace he ordained for you.
Patience isn’t something we develop, it is something God develops in us as he takes over.
Patience is informed waiting.
Those who will not hurry, seem to us to be lazy.
Patience is the art of innocent suffering, Patience means loving God even when he is silent. Patience means crediting God with knowing what’s best.
Isa 40:31 Those who wait upon the Lord.
1.Will renew their strength.
- Will mount up with wings as eagles, spiritual elation is a result of waiting
- Will run and not be weary, waiting supplies the energy for life we may have never known before.
- We will walk and not faint.
Verses for further reflection
“A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly” Prov. 14:29
“A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.” Prov. 15:18
“Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.” Prov. 16:32
“A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to over look an offense.” Prov. 19:11
“Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.” Prov. 25:15
Rom 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction”
Colossians 1:11 “Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.”
1 Thessalonians 5:14 “And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”
Learning to wait patiently on God is worth it. The benefits include the ability to influence others in godliness, the certainty of God’s blessings, a deeper knowledge of Scripture, a growing patience and forgiveness of others, and a certain hope to sustain us even in the darkest times.
Holly Whitcomb names seven “gifts” that can come through waiting: patience, loss of control, living in the present, compassion, gratitude, humility, and trust in God. 65
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