Good things come to those who wait

I hate waiting. I think I’ve said that on this blog once or twice. Waiting just isn’t something I’m good at, but it’s something I usually end up having a lot of practice with. I don’t know if it’s because I have an active imagination and can see all the different possibilities of how life could work out the way I want it to or if it’s because I’m a perfectionist with an inferiority complex. Whatever the reason, I just don’t like waiting. If people got medals for patience, I wouldn’t medal in the top three.

Patience is a characteristic that we grow over time. We don’t really just wake up with it. That would be nice, but it’s one of those qualities we have to develop. You’ve heard the phrase: “Good things come to those who wait”? Exactly.

But patience is more than a character quality. It’s a gift.

Wheat fields at Safe Haven Farm, Haven, KS

Today’s verses are Galatians 5:22-23.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

I’ve heard some people say that asking God for patience is a bad idea because then He’ll give it to you and you’ll end up having to stay in the same situation where you have to have patience for longer than you would have had to if you hadn’t asked for it. That was a long, rambling introduction, but I hope you get the point.

Many of us are in circumstances where we are waiting for God to tell us what to do next. Or some of us are in a situation where we know what God wants us to do… He’s told us to wait. To be patient. To be still. Am I the only one who hates that answer?

Whether it’s the answer we want or not, patience is good for us. The more patience we learn to have, the more we grow in other areas of our life–like faith. Because when you’re sitting still and depending on God to work out the details, you have to learn to trust Him more. When you’re not running around trying to arrange your life to fit the mold of your expectations, you have to let God design it the way He wants. And when you do that, your life works out better anyway because God is a better architect than you are. Just saying.

But personally I think asking for patience is a good idea. Asking God to help me be patient is more than a good idea–it’s a necessity. Otherwise, I’ll twist off and go do things my own way, and my life is too big for me to handle on my own already without me getting into situations I don’t understand.

So how do you have patience? How do you use patience? Because there is such a thing as being lazy. People can be lazy and just say they’re waiting for God to move. People can be lazy and just say they’re being patient. It’s a lot easier to be lazy than patient. But you can tell the difference when God does tell you to do something. If you’re being lazy you’ll look for an excuse to keep being lazy. If you’re being patient, you’ll jump at the opportunity to be useful.

Patience is a gift that God gives us when we accept Christ into our lives. We already have it. It’s our choice to use it or not. If you ignore it, you’re going to walk into a lot of situations where you aren’t prepared and you’ll probably end up falling on your face. But if you implement it, you’ll always be ready for the challenges that are coming. Well–maybe you won’t be ready, but you’ll be as prepared as you can be. And by the time the challenge gets to you, you’ll already have lots of practice waiting on God, and that’s the best way to prepare for any circumstance.

So if you’re faced with a choice today — to do or to wait — you might think about waiting. Granted, if you’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting, double check. Make sure God is telling you to keep waiting. But if you’re getting ready to run off half-c0cked and do things your own way, you might think twice. It’s better to wait and be sure you know what God wants before you do what you want.