Happy New Year! I hope you’ve had a great Christmas and a fun new year celebration. Have you noticed, however, that the holiday season often seems to exacerbate people’s tendency toward impatience? Are you one of those who struggles with patience? According to Galatians 5:22, “patience” is an aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit; however, it is often an attribute which far too many Christians appear to lack.
We live in a society of instant gratification: microwave meals ready in moments, drive-through banks and restaurants, faster and faster electronics, streaming services which allow binging (versus having to wait a week for the next episode) …on and on the examples go. Clocks are everywhere, ruling our lives mercilessly. Our culture breeds impatience as a normal standard. We rush around from place to place, from task to task – yet seem to have less time than ever.
One person recently implied to me that they did not even have time in their busy schedule to invest an adequate amount of their lives in prayer and Bible study. Listen my friends: We each have 168 hours in a week. That is more than enough time to accomplish those things which God has called us to do. If you are too busy for Him, then you are far busier than the Lord desires. Christians would do well to ponder the point of learning patience and allowing the Holy Spirit to develop that facet of their faith. Without it, we are lacking something which God desires each of us to possess.
First Kings tells us the story of the prophet Elijah. In chapter 17, we see that he is dealing with the death of a widow’s son. Three separate times did he have to pray over the dead body before the Lord responded and raised the boy. In the next chapter, we see that the prophet sends his servant to the summit of Mount Carmel to search the horizon for signs of rain. Six times, the servant came back with a negative report. “Go back,” Elijah commanded a seventh time (1 Kings 18:43). And on that seventh trip, the servant finally spotted a sign of a coming deluge. Elijah was learning the lesson of patience, just as countless others have had to learn.
People today are an impatient lot. Even more, it seems, around the holiday season. Christians should set an example of mature patience. Let’s make it a goal for our new year that we purposefully work on developing our patience. My friend, is there something about which you have become impatient? Hang in there. Don’t give up. Remember the words of our Friend: “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches, finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
Take one more step. Draw one more breath. Believe for one more day. Keep looking up. See through eyes of faith, not by sight. Hold on and be patient.
~ Chaplain Brian