Do You Lack Patience?

Do you lack patience?

I’m impatient. I don’t like waiting. I see what I want and I want it. I’m a planner and I have a beautiful plan for how I want my life to go. In my mind, this plan is perfect. Does this sound like you? We have to remember, our plans may not be God’s plans.

When our lives aren’t going according to our plans – we ask God, “Why won’t you do things our way for a change?”

We expect God to love our plan even when we reject his. Have you rejected God’s plan and decided that your plan is better? God tells us to obey him. In the book of Job, Job questions God. God responds by stating, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2).

Just like Job, we take God’s plans and confuse them with our own words that have no knowledge. Where you there when God laid the earth’s foundation? No, yet why do we doubt God’s plan?

If we don’t like God’s rules or his plan we ask for an exception. Here are some examples:

  • “God, I know you want me to marry a Christian guy, but this guy is here now and he is a great guy. Can’t you save him? Maybe I can change him?”
  • “God, I know you want me to pursue purity. If you just brought me a husband now I wouldn’t have this problem.”
  • “It would be so easy if I was married to become friends with the other couples in my church. God, why won’t you give me a husband, so I’ll have more friends?”
  • “If only you gave me that raise at work, then I wouldn’t be so stressed about fiances and could tithe more to you at church.”
  • “If I wasn’t so busy, then maybe I would have time to talk about Jesus with my friends and family. God, when will I have a break?”
  • “I don’t want to work through my problems. I just want Jesus to heal me.”

God’s not going to play by our rules when we don’t follow his. We have to learn to be patient and wait for God’s perfect timing. Noah was patient even when he was stuck on the ark for approximately 370 days. I bet he wanted off the boat after only a few days, but he had to wait for God’s perfect timing. The story of Jacob is also about waiting. Jacob worked 14 years in order to marry Rachel the love of his life. Even after waiting, Jacob still believed she was worth the wait.

God commands us to wait for the Lord (Psalm 27:14). Our minds are so small, but God can see the bigger picture. God can see how each and every detail of our lives fit together. God created you and he created this world, and he knows exactly where you fit in it. You need to trust that he knows what he is doing. His plans are perfect. (TWEET THIS!)

Use this passage from Psalm 40 as a prayer to God.

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
    out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
    and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
    and put their trust in him.

Blessed is the one
    who trusts in the Lord,
who does not look to the proud,
    to those who turn aside to false gods.
Many, Lord my God,
    are the wonders you have done,
    the things you planned for us.
None can compare with you;
    were I to speak and tell of your deeds,
    they would be too many to declare.

My prayer for you is that as you wait for God’s plan, you would put your whole hope in him. “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:24-25). Friends, hope in the unseen. Believe that Jesus is enough and experience life change.

Trusting God


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