Wait.

pa·tience
noun: the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

I actually laughed when I read this definition. We live in this world where everything is immediately accessible to us. We can find out anything in less than 60 seconds, and we don't need anyone's help to do it. We are anything but patient. This attitude of "now" has really affected my life whether I like to admit it or not. I think it's affected all of our lives. But it's taken some trials and a span of time for me to humble myself and realize that I am about as impatient as it gets.

When I first thought about patience, my prideful flesh immediately thought, "Yeah, I'd say I'm pretty patient. I can wait until Christmas to open a present. I can wait to tell someone news. I can wait patiently." Sure, those things are true, I can wait if I have to.

But here's the issue: I have a hard time being patient with my Savior.

I usually pray before I act. But I always do the talking and I never really listen. And when I do listen, I take it into my own hands and will even create my own answer. I justify "God's timing" on my own feelings and information. Relying on our own feelings and information is so dangerous. It can lead us places that might be good, but cause us to settle because what God is desperate to give us is in the other direction.

God wants to give us the best. I will never understand why He believes that we deserve anything from Him, because we don't. Yet He still craves us. He wants to be adored and worshipped by us and all we do is expect from Him. We expect to be successful, we expect Him to heal disease, we expect Him to bring us a man or woman of Christ that will sweep us off our feet. And we don't deserve any of it. We are sinful, prideful, impatient people that are broken and weary. But God doesn't care. He wants to love us anyways. His arms are outstretched and open even when we act like we don't see Him calling to us.
That is how I have spent a lot of my life: acting like I don't hear God calling out to me saying "My child, wait on Me. Be still." But here's the thing about God: He is relentless in pursuing us. You've probably felt it before. After you've acted on your own feelings and information, you feel a tug on your heart of uneasiness. Even when you ignore it, random instances present themselves that are convicting you. God is a jealous God that wants our attention. And He will get it. We can fight all we want, but ultimately He is to be glorified.


This is where patience is due. We are to hope and wait on the Lord because He knows best. We might think we know best or that we know what we're doing, but we are so highly mistaken. I picture God smiling and shaking His head at me a lot. I hold onto things that I don't want to give Him, because I live in fear that He will take it away if I tell Him it's His. That why sometimes when I pray, I don't like to listen. I don't like the idea of God taking something good away from me.

I picture myself to be like a toddler, holding onto a toy that I see as the most prized possession that a child could ever begin dream of. I'll allow my parent to play with it too, only as long as I can keep one hand on it and keep control of it. My mind could never even wrap around something better, so of course I'm not willing to let go. But my parent knows so much more than I do, and behind their back is a toy that blows the toy in my hand completely out of the water. I can't get the next toy unless I let go of my current one. But I don't have enough faith to let go. God is like the parent. He has so much for us that He wants to give us, but we have to let go. Sometimes we have to be patient and trust Him to pull out the better toy from behind his back. But He is soverieign and faithful and will never lead us astray.
I have spent a lot of time in prayer asking God why He could take such good things away from me. His answer is so clear every time.

"I take good things from you because I want you to have the best things. Be still and know that I am God. You have to let go of the good, and trust Me for the best. Patience, child."

There are so many instances in the Bible where God shows His truth about bringing the best. Think about Abraham. A man with faith greater than any that have ever lived. He trusted God with everything, even the life of his own son. His life was filled with patience. I read in Hebrews 6:14-15, "'Surely I will bless and multiply you.' And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise." God gave Abraham the nations. All Abraham had to do was be patient and trust God's goodness and he was blessed with far more than he could have ever imagined for himself.


God wants to do the same for us. He wants to bless us, use us, and show us His love through His promises. Our God will not delay and will forever remain our refuge and our strength. God is able. It's time for us to start acting like it.

He will show up.