“Lord, give me patience – and give it to me now!”
Now I’m sure, that like me, when you came across these words it made you smile. And perhaps you smiled because you can relate.
In these times of instant this, and instant that, we can find it challenging to have to wait.
We no longer want to wait to watch a weekly TV series. If possible, we’d prefer to binge-watch.
We no longer want to wait in line when the bus or other forms of public transport come along. If possible (and if we can get away with it), we’ll jump the queue.
We no longer want to save regularly in order to purchase those little luxuries, so we use our credit cards.
We no longer wish to cook meals from scratch, so we opt for unhealthy convenience foods.
We. Just. Can’t. Wait.
Now for the child of God, this can pose a problem because very often, the God we serve appears not to be in a hurry.
So, when we ask for a mate and nothing appears to be happening, we decide to go out and pick an unbelieving partner.
When we release our faith for prosperity but it doesn’t happen quickly enough, we go and get ourselves in debt, or invest in questionable schemes.
For most of us, patience is something we just don’t want to hear about or factor into our plans, because this can often mean having to wait a long, long, time for the things that we want.
But that is only part of the story.
Today, I came across another definition that I believe, we as children of God, need to take on board.
It is this:
Patience means standing firm under pressure.
(Bob & Debby Gass – UCB Word for Today – May-July 2017)
Now that pressure may be coming from the Enemy, from your peers, from society’s secular standards, or from within yourself. The pressure is to act unadvisedly, to take matters into your own hands, to sit and sulk in disappointment, or else complain and question the integrity of God’s Word when our hopes and dreams don’t materialise within our desired time-frame.
Consider the consequences of our failure to wait on God’s timing.
When God promised Sarah she would bear Abraham a son, rather than waiting for the Lord to bring it to pass within his chosen season, she sought to orchestrate matters in her own way. It didn’t end happily.
And Saul, in the midst of battle, felt pressured to offer an unlawful sacrifice because Samuel didn’t arrive at the expected time. As a result he lost his kingdom.
Purpose-driven believer and aspiring dream achiever, waiting is difficult but the circumstances we create when we mess-up because of impatience, can be infinitely worse.
Stand firm under pressure. Wait on God!
A Purpose-driven achiever 
So true. We live in the Sound Bite Fast Food generation. I must admit I don’t like to cook and with my crazy work schedule I do tend to eat already prepared meals. New Yorkers move at a fast pace. As for getting married I realized years ago when I turned 40 that I was never going to get married. Now I’m nearly sixty and I’ve learned to Love my singleness. No dating for me. I enjoy my life as a Solitary.
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Hello Dancing Palms, thank you for reading and spending your precious time to leave me your response. Comments are so hard to come by that I appreciate them enormously.
You know I’ve heard of 80yrs old getting married, so you never know! 😉
It is a tricky balance I can imagine when you live at a fast pace.
I like that descriptive analysis – “a sound bite fast food generation” must store that in my memory bank for future use.
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I loved the quote “Patience means standing firm under pressure.” The “under pressure” part really sums it up for me – it’s the driver that seems to lead to regret and you are so right – we need to take a leaf from God re timing.
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Hello conversationcat – lovely to hear from you. Yes I really do like that definition of patience. It’s very hard to do though, to wait and wait and wait, particularly if we are not sure whether God is saying no, or not now.
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