Our Patience and the LORD

“You're trying to eat grass that isn't there. Why don't you give it a chance to grow?”   - Richard Adams, Watership Down

We live in an impatient society. Our attention spans have grown shorter than ever before, and so has our tolerance for pausing, resting, or just sitting tight. Patience has been elbowed aside by our unwillingness to wait.

Some say that this current generation is more impatient than any prior generation. Perhaps much of it has to do with our world of smart phones and other devices and services that feed our expectation of instant gratification.

Many seek a quick and easy shortcut to God, too. They constantly search for a time-saving route to heaven. The reality is that the path to the great white throne is best traveled by persistence and patience. Scripture tells us as much...

"The race is not to the swift" (Ecclesiastes 9:11). "But the one who endures to the end will be saved"  - Matthew 24:13 (NLT). "To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;" - Romans 2:7 (ESV). 

The faith of a mature Christian can only be tempered and increased by patience, there is no other way. "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" - James 1:4 (KJV).

A chief marketing officer for a major bank said, "Patience may be a virtue, but it's no longer a reality." But I disagree. It is reality through Jesus Christ! For one to believe in Him with all of their heart requires intensive patience.

Daily reading and studying of the Bible requires patience. Earnestly listening to a Sunday sermon requires patience. Waiting for God to answer prayer requires patience. Expectation and preparedness for Jesus' return requires patience.

Though the world around us may be moving faster all the time, we must learn to wait for the LORD! Only He brings us hope, salvation, and eternal life. Let us wait with compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Scripture: Isaiah 30:18; Romans 8:25; Galatians 6:9; Revelation 14:12; James 5:11 

Prayer: I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope, amen.  - Psalm 130:5

God bless you,

Lauren