In my opinion, patience is one of the hardest virtues to obtain. It is part of our human nature to want everything as soon as we ask for it, but when you're a Christian, you quickly learn that God does not work that way. God makes you wait for His promises and He makes you wait for a good reason; even though we may not know the reason, God does and that's enough for me. So here's some insight to the one's impatiently sitting, slowly becoming more and more jittery as you wait for life to go as you plan. There's more of us out there than you think.
As I was doing my quiet time today, I decided to look at Hebrews 6:19, my cousin just got me a wall hanging with the verse on it and I wanted to have a deeper connection with it. The small section of Hebrews that I read spoke of Abraham and how he not only waited patiently for God to fulfill his promises but he obeyed him the entire time, without question.
"When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, 'I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.' And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. (Hebrews 6:13-15)
Notice how the passage doesn't say "And so after shaking his leg in impatience and profusely complaining for a while, Abraham received what was promised." The passage says he waited patiently and it had me thinking, am I waiting patiently with faith for God's promises? More than that, am I obeying God in my waiting?
The promise that God made to Abraham is explained in Genesis 22:17 after Abraham was given an order from God.
"Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Issac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Genesis 22:2).
Without even so much as a hesitation, Abraham did it. He trusted God and His plans and despite not wanting to do what was asked of him, he did it. In the end, right before Abraham could sacrifice his child, an angel of the Lord stopped him. God saw that Abraham faithfully obeyed Him and feared Him and then provided the lamb for the offering, doing no harm to the child.
These passages reminded me of two things specifically. The first is that if God promises something, it will happen. No if's, and's or but's. When God makes a promise to us, He will deliver that promise. All we have to do is patiently wait for God to decide the timing is right. Sometimes that is a really hard concept to grasp and sometimes you will feel like you're waiting for something that isn't ever going to happen, but that is where your true test of faith comes in. In making you wait, God is testing your faithfulness, and when you prove your faithfulness to Him, that is when He best shows you His loyalty.
The second thing is that we can't just ignore God if He tells us to do something we don't want to do. While we may want one thing, God may need us to do another thing before He leads us to what WE want. We can't just pick and choose which of God's orders to obey, we need to go in whatever direction God leads us in and trust that He will never lead us astray. Do you think Abraham wanted to sacrifice his only son? Of course not! But he knew that God had an underlying plan and because he trusted in that, God rewarded him. In the same way, if God is calling us to do something as we wait for something else, we need to do it whether we can see the reasoning behind it or not.
So in those times of impatience, really look to God and ask Him what He wants of you. Not only that but pray that your wants begin to line up with what He wants. God wants to give you the best life you can have, He wants you to have hopes and a bright future. If you learn to patiently wait for such things, they will come and you will be better off in the long run. If you're impatiently waiting for a job opportunity to arise; would you rather go through 6 bad jobs in the next year or wait a year for God to provide you with your dream job ? If you're impatiently wanting a relationship; would you rather go through heartbreak after heartbreak just to have a relationship, or are you willing to patiently wait for the true love that God has planned for you? Know what God wants for you and be patient enough to wait for it. Patience is a tough virtue of obtaining, but it sure does pay off.
