Patience. Just Wait A Minute (or longer).
by Steve Martin
“Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ (Messiah).” (2 Thess. 3:5 NKJV)
Patience doesn’t develop overnight. Awesome reality, right? It takes a few minutes to develop.
Those of you who remember the Polaroid cameras, with the “instant” photos (back in the 1960’s) knew you had to wait a while for the white paper to turn color. If we wanted the best picture possible, having that technology then, we had to wait about three minutes. For this generation, the digital photo is right there on your smartphone the second you take it. No wonder our grandkids don’t know how to wait!
When I read in Scripture the verse I shared above, I was amazed at just the thought of how much patience the Lord Yeshua (Jesus) really does have. Think of it for a moment. Paul prays that the Lord would direct our hearts into the patience of Christ, our Messiah. For that patience to be continually ongoing and be manifested towards us and through us.
The Lord has waited until now for you to do that which He instructed you to do last week. He is still waiting for you to complete the job He gave you last month. And that assignment you are still working on from 10 years ago? Yes, He is still waiting. His patience is beyond our human understanding.
I have an old photo of the Grand Canyon, mounted on the front of a piece of wood so it can hang on the wall. It has thus been on my wall for a few decades now. The caption reads, “God’s work takes time.” What an image! It certainly does! (I should put it next to the old generational photos of our ancestral families Laurie has hanging in our home’s main entrance hallway. His creation of them took some time too!)
Community in the last days will consist of people who are walking in patience. We will have learned that God’s work takes time, but that He is always on time. Never early. Never late.
Our maturity in this fruit of the Holy Spirit, Ruach HaKodeh, will have reached a point that we are not anxious about when God will do something, but knowing that He certainly will do it, as He said He would. (Gal 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control.” CJB)
Just look at Israel and the Jews. The entire land was first promised to Abraham centuries ago. Time and again the Jews were driven out, but always brought back to their Promised Land by His Mighty Hand of Providence. Again, just in the last century, after being scattered throughout all the nations, He has brought them back again. What a patient God we serve!
Even now the Lord is growing patience in your heart. If you think of a coin with its two sides, not only has He shown you how long He has waited for your obedience in situations, but on the other side of the coin, He has also been causing you to wait on others, giving them time to grow in their faith walk. He is allowing us to realize that we each need time to hear, respond and obey as He speaks. When we do, our understanding of His everlasting patience grows. We then tend to allow others the needed time to get where He knows they should be.
What our God did in Abraham’s life, David’s life, and those women who waited for the promise of a child to come forth are further examples for us to follow. We need to learn from them in our understanding of patience, as we wait upon the Lord to fulfill personal promises in our lives. The Lord’s molding of our Jewish patriarch Abraham, the father of faith, allows us to see the years he had to have patience grow, for the promised son Isaiah to come. And even though he wavered in that, resulting in the birth of Ishmael, the Lord God didn’t withdraw His Word. The Lord’s patience with him allowed Abraham’s faith to see the promise.
We all know the story of Joseph – how patience had to be worked out in his own heart - with time in prison and then during the role of being second only to Pharaoh in government. This was part of the Lord’s plan in Joseph’s life. The Lord was allowing the years to go by, while also waiting for Joseph’s brothers to come to the point of seeing him again, and repenting of their deed.
Whether Joseph actually thought he would see his brothers again or not wasn’t the main point, but I believe the Lord taught Joseph a valuable lesson in having patience through this long ordeal. When the fruit was ripe, he was allowed to eat.
In considering the ongoing evil that takes place in the hearts of men, I have often asked the Lord why He waits so long before He does something about it, before His righteous judgment comes forth. (Oh, He will act. History has proven that.) It is because of His long suffering patience, wanting to give man every opportunity to repent and turn to Him, that His timing operates on a different clock than ours.
Patience first comes from the Lord for our lives. Then it grows in us as a fruit of the Holy Spirit - in our attitude and action toward others. We are then understanding why He waits so long, and allows things in our lives to seemingly go on past our expected done date. He is unfolding His perfect plan and purposes for us, and the peoples of the nations.
He is not quick to act, but He is sure to act for His plans and purposes. When the appointed time has come, the patience we have been allowed to grow will have been all worth it. And it will not be a minute too late.
Steve Martin
Founder
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Now Think On This #128 “Patience - Just Wait A Minute” Steve Martin
Date: In the year of our Lord 2014 (03.11.14) Tuesday at 4:30 am in Charlotte, NC).
All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on our newest website: Now Think On This
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