The Advent of Patience – December 16, 2013

Suggested Reading: Gal 4:4-6

Are you naturally patient? I’m not, and as I look around, I don’t see a lot of patience in the world these days. In fact, it seems like we are progressively programmed to be less patient, to expect and demand instant everything: information, service, gratification, instant everything. We are no longer required to be patient, nor do we desire it.

God refuses to be rushed or bullied. He is not slow as some reckon slowness. He does everything on His perfect timescale. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. He knows the end from the beginning and He is working all things together for our good, and the good of the world. He is never late, never early, always gets the timing just right.

However, I don’t understand His timing. His thoughts are higher than mine; His ways are higher than mine. I do not and cannot understand all the factors at work.

I remember pondering this as I walking down the beach here in Wales, noticing the action of the waves. The tide was going out, so the waves were not crashing, but instead gently rolling up and down between the rocks and over the sand.  I noticed that the rocks were well worn; some had taken on impossible shapes beneath the steady motion of the waves.  I saw the sand being pushed up and down the beach by the surf.  I saw small pebbles rolling around beneath the water, on their way to becoming sand themselves.

As I walked down the beach that day, my mind wandered and I found myself mentally designing a sand making machine, as if the only purpose of the waves was the slow manufacture of sand. I was sure I cold design a more efficient system to achieve the same end. As heirs to the industrial and information revolutions, we naturally set out to design and build systems that will efficiently and effectively produce the results that we need, but God’s way of doing thing is different and better. It may look inefficient, but we do not see the whole picture.

God is moving and His Kingdom is coming, but all in His own mysterious time and paradoxical ways.  I feel such urgency, an impatience for God to move!  I want to see all the people healed and the slaves set free. I want to see evil eradicated (both in me and in the world). I want His Kingdom to come and His will to be done NOW!

But God, who knows all things, is patient. He gives me His Spirit of patience. He asks me to trust and to wait upon Him. He promises that when I do, I will soar like an eagle.

At just the right time, God sent His Son. God is not slow as some reckon slowness, but in the fullness of time He came, and He will come again.

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Questions:

In what ways are you impatient?

What things are you waiting for in life?

Are you content with God’s timing?