Give Me Patience — Right Now!

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

“I want what I want — right now!” That’s how life is in these days. Generally speaking, it’s what we have collectively become: a patience-is-hard-to-come-by-culture. Impatience in traffic, when we yell at the driver doing 63 mph in the fast lane. Impatient with the person who put 11 items on the counter right under a sign that reads, “10 ITEMS ONLY.” The nerve of some people! 

The Bible has things to say about salvation and heaven, but what about patience. Does it say anything about that? Well, you guessed it, it surely does. So let’s start with the word itself. It comes from a Greek word that means, slow to boil. In other words, a patient person has a long fuse before explosion… a very long fuse! 

Biblical patience deals with three specific aspects of life. 

1. Patience doesn’t give in to negative circumstances no matter how difficult they may be. When God promised Abraham and Sarah a son, they had to wait many years before God would make good on His promise. But they became impatient as the child-bearing years rushed by. So they took matters into their own hands and, well, you know the rest of the story. Ishmael came along, and we still haven’t recovered from that sin today. They had to wait another fourteen years before the son of promise came. To that, it was said of Abraham, “Having waited patiently, [Abraham] obtained the promise” [Hebrews 6.15].

2. Patience copes with difficult people. That’s why the Apostle Paul told the Thessalonian Christ followers to, “be patient with all men” [5.14]. Patience refuses to be vengeful. It refuses to retaliate. In other words, patience bears insult, slander, hatred, even persecution. You can’t start a fight with a patient person!

3. Patience takes every aspect of God’s plan as a good thing. While it may question God at times, it is always obedient, even when it lacks understanding. Patience says, “I will do Your will, Lord. Whatever You have planned for me, You will make it right.” That’s the point of Romans 8.28, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

There you have it. Patience endures negative circumstances, copes with difficult people, and accepts God’s plan for everything. Since God is in control, let’s be patient people, waiting for Him to do His good work in all things.

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering [patience], bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4.1-2