Meditations on Patience
Have you ever noticed how time seems to stand still in certain seasons of our lives, and in others, it is moving at warp speed? And we know that time passes in a continuum, so common sense tells us that slowing down or speeding up must be all about our perception or perhaps our level of patience. To take it a bit further, we may experience great joy or extreme frustration in both the slowing down and the speeding up; each circumstance can bring us a wide range of emotions depending on how much patience we exercise. Let me play this out a bit.
So, for those my age, you’ve probably already gone through your season of rearing young children and have passed into the teen and early adult years. Do you remember all those sleepless nights with a baby? Most of us weren’t too happy about that, right?! We absolutely couldn’t wait for the baby to sleep through the night, and we did everything in our power to ensure that would happen sooner than later. On the flip side, remember when the baby fell asleep in your arms, and you never wanted to put them down? You may have even said out loud, “I could do this forever.”
I’m fascinated by how different we may experience life’s circumstances based on how we perceive it. We seem to have patience in one circumstance and not the other. Crazy, right? Just a little bit of patience changes everything. You might be praying for more patience in your life right now because you have been:
Waiting on the Lord to give you clarity.
Praying for a long time for God to change your circumstances.
Losing your temper with others.
Growing weary and thinking of giving up.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9
It’s pretty easy to discount or justify our lack of patience when we have life circumstances and other people to point our frustration toward; we are tempted blame our lack of patience on them and bury that bitterness in our hearts. (Ugh, that’s not very pretty). The natural response is impatience which leads to stress, anger, and frustration. If we want to correct this imbalance of behavior and thinking, we have to do the hard work of looking at ourselves and recognizing all the times we have required the gift of patience, then we have to be willing to extend that same grace to others. Growing in patience requires love, understanding, gentleness, and great hope.
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Romans 8:25
Patience reveals our faith in God’s timing, omnipotence, and love. If you are looking for a brief how-to to grow in patience, consider these:
Instead of responding, “Why me?” remember this may be God’s will for your life, and thank Him for reigning over all things.
Look for His purpose in it. Maybe He wants to use you as a witness, or perhaps this is for your growth.
Return to His promises in scripture. We so often need to be reminded that “all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
This kind of change doesn’t happen overnight, but if we seek to grow confident in Jesus, we will grow in patience and all His other ways as well.
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
Lamentations 3:25
Want to go deeper on Patience? Check out this post.