“Patience is not a desperate waiting in doubt, but a hopeful
waiting in confidence.” Anonymous
“Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for
the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go
to sleep in peace. God is awake.”
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
Patience is a virtue. But patience can
also be very difficult. Especially in this era of breaking news, fast food,
overnight delivery and Social Medias, patience seems all but forgotten. Most of
the time, we think that if we are being patient we would miss out on something
we desired. So we become the hare in the race and fast track ourselves through
career choices and opportunities and even relationship for fear that we would
be forgotten and miss out.
Do you remember the story of the hare
and the tortoise; it is the tortoise that wins the race, because he is constant
and sure-footed. In trying and difficult times, learn to have patience, to wait
on the Lord and to trust his perfect timing.
- WAIT FOR THE LORD
Have you ever seen
someone get away with something? Many movies set the drama by showing a
character that gets away with bad behavior and usually at the end of the movie the
person finally gets what s/he deserves. This is fun to watch in a movie, but in
real life it is so difficult to see someone get away with bad deeds or
behavior. We want justice and we want them now. But what does God say about being
patient? Read the following scripture from the bible.
‘Be
still. Be patient. Wait for the Lord to act. Don't be upset when other people
succeed. Don't be upset when they carry out their evil plans.’ – Psalms 37:7
All those times that we
were wondering why God isn’t doing something about it, we have no idea what God
is doing in that person’s heart and mind. Not only this, but there are a lot of
other situations that require our patience. Waiting is one phenomenon that
cannot be eliminated from our lives. We might be waiting for a job opportunity,
for our life partner to show up, for our health to recover. In situations like
these, we can wait for God to take care of everything.
‘I
waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.’ Psalms
40:1
- PERFECT TIMING
We must always remember
that God’s timing is not the same as our timing. God’s timing is perfect! When
things don’t happen as per our timetable we usually become discouraged and we
become impatient with God. Trust His perfect timing!
Do you remember the story
of Abraham? God gave him an incredible promise. He told Abraham that he would
have thousands of grandkids and great grandkids.
"The
Lord took Abram outside and said, "Look up at the sky. Count the stars, if
you can." Then he said to him, "That is how many children you will have."
– Genesis 15:5
But the problem was that
Abraham didn’t have any children yet. Both he and his wife were too old to
start having kids! Abraham waited for 10 years for God to keep His promise and
he still had no children. Abraham and his wife became impatient. So Abraham
married his wife’s maid and had a son. Several years later, Abraham’s first
wife also had a son. There was a lot of conflict between these two sons, and
much heartbreak because of Abraham’s impatience. Did God keep His promise to
give Abraham children through his first wife? Yes. However, God’s timing was not
the same as Abraham’s timing.
Our timing is not the
same as God’s – sometimes it's opposite. Sometimes we think we need something
much earlier than we do. But be sure of this: God does not show up late! He
knows what we need and when we need it.
Good day!
Lidia S.
