I’ve never been an incredibly impatient person. I have my moments but generally I don’t get worked up about having to wait for a whole lot. When I was a child my parents would have to drag my brother and me out of bed on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. We just didn’t get worked up about it.
That is much more difficult for some other people and I can sympathize. It can be incredibly aggravating to expect things to work out in a particular timeframe only to be made to wait. In our instant gratification society it can be incredibly difficult to learn to wait. That is really true when it comes to spiritual matters. We view spiritual matters to be the most urgent of all, and rightfully so. So when we are made to wait it can be excruciating. What can we do to learn patience when we’re feeling anything but patient?
- Realize that God views urgency differently than we do. We live in time and so we view things through the lens of time. God does not exist in the realm of time. He exists and views things through the lens of eternity. As an example, those who lived in Peter’s day lost faith in the second coming of Jesus because it had not happened yet and they believed that it should have. So Peter reminded them “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). That is God has a different perspective of urgent because He has a different perspective of time. If we truly trust God we will trust His timing and that will help us learn to wait.
- Remember that God always has your best interest in mind. When things don’t work out in the timeframe we believe they should we are quick to cast the blame upward to God and assume that He just doesn’t care/isn’t paying attention/etc. But we can be assured that any assumed inattention on the part of God is absolutely not true. God is very much wrapped up in each of our lives and cares immensely that we receive what is truly in our own best interest. For instance, back in 2 Peter 3 it says that God was waiting to send Jesus again because of His longsuffering. That is, He knew because of the people’s sin that it was in their best interest that He delay the end of time to give them opportunity to repent (vs. 9). That is just one example of God’s much broader concern for the best interest in each of our lives. And when we remember that God truly has our best interest in mind it helps us learn to wait.
- Resign yourself to the fact that what you believe is important/urgent may not really be. Now granted, this is not always true. Sometimes our instincts are correct in this regard. But a lot of times we over dramatize matters and get worked up about things that aren’t really as important or urgent as we think they are. I think back to a number of times in my life when I got worked up over something only to later learn that it wasn’t as big a deal as I had made it out to be. In 1 Samuel 8 the Israelites got all worked up about who was going to lead them in the future. Samuel was old, his sons weren’t worth killing, and they didn’t know what was going to happen. In other words they didn’t trust God to provide a leader like He always had. So they became adamant about appointing a king, which they did, and then suffered the consequences that Samuel warned for centuries to come (vs. 10ff). What they thought was a big deal really wasn’t, but if they had simply been patient and allowed God to work His plan their future would have been much better.
Do you struggle with patience? Maybe you do and maybe you don’t. But regardless I think these are some key principles that are important to help us come to a greater peace in view of how God works in our lives.
-Andy Brewer