“I waited patiently for the Lord.  He turned to me and heard my cry.” Psalm 40:1 NIV

The Provision of Patience

Walk His Way Revisited

Recently I read a friend’s Facebook post that said, “Have patience and wait for the thing you want most.  Don’t chase it. Don’t run after it. If God wants you to have it, He will give it to you.”

The post got me to thinking that scripture definitely affirms and supports these words. In Psalm 40, David attests to the enduring value of waiting in submission for God to act. If anyone was forced to learn patience, it was David! He spent years waiting. From the time Samuel first anointed him until the time he actually became king over Judah, approximately fifteen years passed. Then an additional seven years elapsed before he was anointed king over all of Israel.

So often, in our flesh we just want what we want, and we want it NOW! We yearn to take things into our own hands (into our CONTROL) and manage it our own way. But there is truly a better and higher way. It is to take our tightly held desire before the Lord, to open our hands, and to release that cherished hope into His SOVEREIGN care.

God reassures us through His Words in Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts then your thoughts.”

A close friend shared with me an example of the payoff of patience. She lives within view of the ocean, but her view was blocked by her neighbor’s stark, half-dead tree. Being acquainted with the neighbor, she politely offered to pay for felling the offensive tree, but the answer was “no.” Several years passed and she confided that she sometimes imagined herself going, under the cover of darkness, and pouring poison on the tree, but she restrained herself, knowing that would certainly displease God. Eventually the neighbor passed away and new people bought the house. When they met my friend, one of their first conversations was about their plan to remove the repugnant tree. Hallelujah for her! Patience brought the right result in the right way.

There are real blessings and benefits to be gained when we wait for God:

  1. God uses our wait-time to refine our character.
  2. Our wait-time reveals our trust in God. We should never want to get ahead of or outside of His good plan for us.
  3. Waiting produces humility in us that concedes God is big and we are small.
  4. We learn that delayed answers are not necessarily denied answers. Our perception is finite but God’s is infinite.
  5. As we wait, God can form within us a peaceful soul, even while storms swirl around us, if we depend on His reliable goodness and faithfulness.
  6. Finally, as we wait, God would always have us do the next RIGHT thing.

Dear Father, just as David waited long to be king, patient waiting drew him ever closer to You. When we shelter under Your wings, reveal to our hearts that the real treasure may not be what we await, but our patient waiting with You. Amen.