I'm all for having more patience... I just hate all the waiting!

Do you consider yourself a patient person?  I like to think that I am...but I'm not really.  I have somehow developed the ability to look relaxed and patient while my insides are one huge knot of frustration and impatience.  I guess that's a good thing sometimes, but it doesn't help me when the One I'm impatient with is God—what with Him knowing all my inner thoughts an all.

Am I the only one who gets impatient with God?  I tend to think not.  Not so much because I know so much about other people but because of the number of books and sermons I found that deal specifically with learning to “wait on the Lord”.  One book, especially, I think I want to check out.  It's called  You're Late Again, Lord!  The Impatient Woman's Guide to God's Timing.  The author, Karon Goodman, seems to really understand how hard it is to submit to God's perfect timing.  In the introduction to the book, Goodman sums it up quite nicely.

“We have become so accustomed to ordering and orchestrating and planning and scheduling that it is incredibly hard to admit that not all is within our control. Many decisions every day are ours to handle, and we get pretty good at taking care of things. We believe that we could carry on even better if God would only cooperate. We demand the answers we need from him, and yet we hear no response. We question and condemn the intolerable delays in the events we need to happen in our lives, and yet nothing changes. Doesn't God know that we need those answers NOW?
“Yes, he knows, but thankfully, he's smarter than we are. Because he knows how hard it is for us to wait, to abandon control and to trust beyond ourselves, he has devised a plan just for us. The basis of the plan appeared many years ago, but it applies so well today, to you and me. God is so clever.”

That's the hardest part, I think—trusting God enough to release our grip on our life and handing it over to Him,...even if we don't know or understand what He has in mind for us.

 

As Christians, I believe our definition of patience differs from the secular definition.  Secular patience can be defined as 

“the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation; the ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay.”

Patience in the context of secular behavior is more about appearance than anything that might be going on in a person's heart or mind.  But in a Christian context, patience becomes something very different.  It is wrapped together with things like faith, contentment, and meekness.  Christian patience is about waiting or resting.  According to a pastor by the name of J. Hampton Keathley, III, 

“waiting means resting in God's timing and activity while taking care of our responsibilities—the things we can do and should do as set forth in the Word of God.”

Additionally, Keathley says that “waiting always means seeking the Lord.”  Waiting for God is not like waiting in a doctor's office.  There are things we need to be doing while we wait.  We need to be studying the Bible to find answers to our questions and

“claiming God's promises” and  praying for wisdom and understanding.
“The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God's word. “  Lamentations 3:2

Keathley states that 

“Waiting means claiming God's promises by faith and resting in what God is doing in our lives so we can faithfully follow God's principles and keep His values, priorities, and pursuits.”

If we're not waiting for the Lord or resting in Him, we are probably trying to solve things by ourselves, in our own strength.  We are trying to protect ourselves because we are angry, afraid and/or jealous.  We whine, grumble, or even run away from the problems. 

 “We try to control others, call attention to ourselves to bolster our feelings of inadequacy or to defend ourselves against the comments of others.  Out of fear of failure or loss we compromise our convictions, or what we know is rights.  But fear, which has displaced faith in the Lord, causes us to lean on the arm of flesh.”  

Keathley sure doesn't beat around the bush does he.

“To wait on the Lord means learning to be content and patient as we cling to God in a fallen world and rest in His love and wisdom.”

Paul already had that all figured out, didn't he. 

“Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am.” Philippians 4:11.

Mrs. White made this comment about patience:  

“Patience under trials will keep us from saying and doing those things which will injure our own souls and injure those with whom we associate. Let your trials be what they will, nothing can seriously injure you if you exercise patience, if you are calm and unexcited when in trying positions.”  E.G. White, Our High Calling (1961), page 70. 

“Do your best, and then wait, patiently, hopefully, rejoicingly, because the promise of God can not fail. Christ's life of untiring effort has been recorded for our encouragement. He did not fail nor become discouraged. In time of trial, be patient. Patience is a precious jewel. It will bring health to heart and mind. Wait on the Lord until he sees that you are ready to receive and appreciate the blessings for which you ask. Exercise faith, even though the trials are severe. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Of faith hope is born.” The Review & Herald, May 30, 1912.

What Are You Waiting For?

Thoughts  on the Sabbath School lesson dated 5.28.11

 

“For those of you who've asked that question, a recent poll by Priority Management, Inc., has the answer. In a lifetime, the average American will spend:  six months sitting at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, one year looking for misplaced objects, two years unsuccessfully returning phone calls, five years waiting in line.”[1]

That’s a whole lot of waiting around!  I’m pretty sure I’ve beaten the average on looking for misplaced objects!  What about you?

Anyway, these are the things we spend our time waiting on, how long does it take for us to become impatient?

“In March of 2006, the Associated Press and Ipsos surveyed 1,003 adults concerning Americans' attitudes and behavior regarding impatience. Some of the findings included:   While waiting in line at an office or store, it takes an average of 17 minutes for most people to lose their patience.  On the phone, it takes about 9 minutes for most people to lose their patience.  Women lost their patience after waiting in line for about 18 minutes. For men, it was an average of 15 minutes.  People with lower income and less education are more patient than those with a college education and a high income.  People who live in the suburbs are more patient than people who live in the city.”[2]

What I get from this is we’re an impatient bunch who end up waiting around for stuff.  That could explain a good bit of our daily stress levels.

It’s funny, though, that as impatient as we tend to be about trivial, everyday things like waiting in line at the store or being put on hold on the phone, many of us feel no urgency at all for a relationship with Jesus.  I’ve known people who, when asked about their lack of a relationship, have said that they’re “not in any hurry” to make that kind of a commitment.  I believe that people who feel that way, often don’t have an accurate picture of themselves and their need for salvation.  Actually we all have the same problem.  Satan does his best to make sure that we never see ourselves as we really are.

"You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”   Revelation 3:17

 The longer we see ourselves as rich and self-sufficient, the longer it will be before we ask Jesus into our lives.  The longer we stay like Florence Foster Jenkins, also known as, “the Tone Deaf Diva.”

“Florence Foster Jenkins, a soprano, loved to sing—especially the great operatic classics. She inherited money when she was in her 50s, which funded her musical career. It wasn't long before her popularity skyrocketed, holding annual recitals at the Ritz-Carlton in New York throughout the 1930s and 40s. But as one writer puts it, ‘History agrees, with hands held over its ears, that she couldn't sing for sour apples. Jenkins' nickname, behind her back, was 'the Tone-Deaf Diva,' or 'The Terror of the High C's.' The writer adds that if you ever hear one of her old recordings, all that you'll hear will be ‘squeaks, squawks, and barks.’
But get this: she didn't ever grasp that she was bad! When people laughed and hooted as she sang, she took it to be delirious enthusiasm for great music. She thought they loved her and her music.
“In 1944, when she was 76-years-old, she did a benefit concert for the armed forces at Carnegie Hall in New York. Thousands lined the streets to get tickets, and the performance sold out in minutes. The recording of that concert is still the third most requested album from Carnegie Hall recordings, punctuated by a painful rendition of ‘Ave Maria.’
“What can we learn from Ms. Jenkins? People will say, "It doesn't matter what you believe, so long as you're sincere." But it does matter. Belief must match reality, or it is laughable, a delusion.”[3]

The longer Satan can keep us in that delusion, the longer it will be until we admit our need for Jesus.

Satan knows that the instant we recognize our need and cry out , “Jesus save me,” like Peter did when he was walking on the water with Jesus and began to sink.  “Jesus save me.”

That’s all it takes…isn’t it amazing?  No matter how far away we’ve wandered (or run from) Jesus, it’s only one step back into His arms.  Falling away may have taken years, but returning is instant.

“If you go over to Scotland, or anywhere there are lots of sheep, sooner or later you're going to see a very unusual sight. You'll see a little lamb running around the field, and you'll notice this lamb has what looks like an extra fleece tied around its back. In fact, you'll see there are little holes in the fleece for its four legs and usually a hole for its head. If you see a little lamb running around like that, that usually means its mother has died.
“And without the protection and nourishment of a mother, any orphaned lamb will die. If you take the orphaned lamb and try to introduce it to another mother, the new mother will butt it away. She won't recognize the lamb's scent and will know the new baby is not one of her own lambs.
“But thankfully, most flocks are large enough that there is a ewe that has recently lost a lamb. The shepherd will skin the dead lamb and make its fleece into a covering for the orphaned lamb, then he'll take the orphaned lamb to the mother whose baby just died. Now, when she sniffs the orphaned lamb, she will smell the fleece of her own lamb. Instead of butting the lamb away, she will accept it as one of her own.
“In a similar way, we have become acceptable to God by being clothed with Christ.”[4]

It only takes an instant – no waiting in line, no application to fill out, no automated phone answering system, no app to download;  just three simple words: “Jesus save me.”

What are we waiting for?

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[1] Reported in U.S. News & World Report, 1/20/89. Leadership, Vol. 10, no. 3.

[2] Trevor Thompson, "Impatience Poll Glance," www.hosted.ap.org (5-28-06)

[3] Doug George, "Florence Foster Jenkins: She played Carnegie Hall and she really couldn't sing a note?" Chicago Tribune (11-20-09)

[4] Peter Grant, "In What Way Is Jesus Christ Different?"