My wife has a beautiful way of encouraging me each morning with a text containing Scripture and a message. Yesterday, she shared one about patience, comparing it to a farmer waiting for the rain to help grow his crops. The farmer can’t rush the rain, just like we can’t rush God’s plans for us. Instead, we’re called to wait with anticipation and trust, without worrying, complaining, or demanding that God works according to our schedule.
I jokingly (or maybe not so jokingly?) responded back to her, asking what I would do with all that extra time if I didn’t use it for worrying, complaining, and demanding.
For me, it’s not so much about the worrying or complaining, but I’m weak when it comes to the demanding part. I really like trying to expedite God’s plan and frequently try to sneak my way into the captain’s chair and steer the ship (which fails 100% of the time).
It’s easy to get frustrated when things don’t happen when or how we want them to. We live in a world that values speed and efficiency, where waiting feels like wasted time. I’ve heard this referred to as the “Amazon effect”—if you want something, it just shows up the next day.
But God’s timing is different from ours. He sees the bigger picture, and sometimes, He asks us to wait because He’s preparing us for what’s ahead or working things out in ways we can’t yet see.
The Bible gives us many examples of people who had to wait for God’s promises. In each of these cases, the waiting was not in vain; it was part of God’s perfect plan for their growth and His glory.
True patience means trusting in God’s love even when we don’t see the full picture. It means letting go of our desire to control the outcome and believing that He is working all things together for our good, in His perfect time (Romans 8:28).
Questions:
How do you personally struggle with waiting on God’s timing? Is it more about worrying, about complaining, or about demanding? Or all three?
Do you also sometimes try to take the Captain’s chair? What does that look like for you and how does it work out?
Patience is such a simple concept ‘on paper’, so why is it so difficult to practice more consistently?
When we worry, complain, and demand different timing, how does that impact God’s perfect plan for our lives?
How would you explain today’s lesson if you had to summarize it in a couple of sentences?
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