When we look at our world, our society, and our lifestyles, what one thing comes to mind that gets in our way when we desire peace? What four-letter word do we hate to hear more than anything in the world? That word is WAIT! We are an impatient society that thinks it has to have everything now! We have drive-thru banking, fast food restaurants, quick divorces, and faster and faster computers. The more we have to speed up our lives in conveniences, the more impatient we have become. This century is a time of the most impatient people whoever have lived. If we don’t get what we want when we want it, then we grow angry and through fits of rage at others in front of us. But when it comes to our spiritual life things change, right? Wrong, we are just as impatient when it comes to spiritual matters also, how many times have you seen people while listening to a 30-minute sermon, check their watches to see how long till its over. (Good thing they didn’t live in the 1700’s when sermons where an average of 90-minutes long) How about when our prayers are not answered, in our time, do we then give up on God? Maybe we say were waiting on God, but we already have a plan in their head on how things “should” go. What does patiently waiting on the Lord like? What does patient endurance look like in the life of the believer? I want to look at this subject more carefully and see how our impatience can destroy the plan God has for our lives.
First let’s look at some definitions before we go on any further. The American Heritage College Dictionary states impatient as: “Unable to wait patiently or tolerate delay; restless. Unable to endure irritation or opposition; intolerant; impatient of criticism. Expressing or produced by impatience. Restively eager or desirous; anxious.”[i] On the opposite side we have the word patient. Scripture defines it as, long-suffering, slow to anger, hopeful, enduring, remaining, waiting, and abiding.[ii] And John Piper says that patience is “a deepening, sweetness, and willingness to stand where God has appointed you, and to go at a pace He has appointed.”[iii] In other words, “Standing in your appointed place, and going to His appointed place.”[iv] When you look at these definitions, which one defines your ability to wait on the Lord? Is it patient endurance, or impatient restlessness?
Before we look at impatience, let’s take a look at what waiting looks like. When you think of waiting what comes to mind? When you think of waiting on God does that look about the same? We might think of waiting as sitting around with our arms folded, looking for something to happen. I would argue that waiting on God is much different. For example, the story of John Bunyan comes to mind. He was a preacher in the 1600’s that was imprisoned for 12 years because he didn’t conform to the Church of England. “He told local magistrates he would rather remain in prison until moss grew on his eyelids than fail to do what God commanded.”[v] Some of us might say that he wasted his life while sitting in jail. On the contrary, while he was waiting on God to deliver him, he penned nine books during those twelve years. One of those books was Pilgrims Progress. “Eventually, it became the best selling book (apart from the Bible) in publishing history.[vi] John Bunyan didn’t just fold his hands and sit there waiting on God’s deliverance. He did the Lord’s work while waiting on further instructions. He was away from his wife and four children during this time, but he stayed diligent to the cause of Christ. How about us? What do we do in our times of waiting? Maybe we are waiting on a new job, or a spouse. We could be waiting on others to grow in the spirit. We could be waiting for our circumstances to improve. I think most of us are waiting for something in our lives. But the more important issue is what are we doing in our time of waiting?
Are we spending time complaining and griping about what God has not done for us? Are we at odds with others and whining about what they have and become envious of them? Are we waiting and becoming impatient and bitter about life? Maybe we are sitting there with our arms folded in anger because we haven’t received what we think we should. Ask yourself one question, has waiting built character and patience in your life? Or have you allowed bitterness to grow in your soul because you resent this time of delay?
Now let’s look at what impatience does to our walk with God. As we look at a story in the book of Isaiah, we see that Israel was under a threat from the Assyarian Army. Instead of waiting on the Lord to deliver them, they fled to Egypt. This is the response God gave them for not trusting and fleeing from His providential care.
”Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.” This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.”[vii] (Isaiah 30:12-17)
Did you notice the words cracked, bulging, collapse, break, and shattered. How is that like our own lives as we run from God’s plan of waiting? How many shattered dreams do you have littering your past because you ran ahead of God’s timing? I know in my life there are plenty of them. I have been left alone like a banner on a hill because I refused to look to God for direction. I looked only to what I thought was my own wisdom but instead it was only worldly foolishness. If we wait on God we have the promises of Isaiah 30:18 which states. “Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”[viii] He longs, He rises, and He blesses those who wait on Him. It is a theme all through the Bible that God desires us to wait on Him, to turn over our impatience to Him and place our trust in His wisdom, not our own.
Just because we wait on the Lord doesn’t mean we will be delivered from suffering. As Charles Spurgeon said “Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it but that you may endure it. Christ exempts you from sin, but not from sorrow.”[ix] Our attitude needs to be that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the book of Daniel. They refused to bow down to an idol made for the King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and were threatened with a fiery furnace if they refused too. Their response to him was “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”[x] (Daniel 3:17-18) I think this story relates to our time of endurance. Will we bow down to the pressures and serve our impatience? Or will we wait on the Lord even when it means to wait in the fiery furnaces of this world? We need to wait on the Lord even when others, including Christians say not to. Because waiting on God always looks like weakness to others, but the opposite is true. “But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” [xi] (Isaiah 40:31) When we are impatient, we will only see destruction, while on the other hand if we wait on God He will work for us as we see in Isaiah 64:4. “Who has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait on Him.” We all need to make our minds up. Are we determined to run ahead of God as thou we know better then He does? Or will we wait on Him and allow Him to work for us as we wait on His plan for our lives.
“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.”[xii] (Psalm 130:5-7)
Discussion Questions:
How has your impatience brought division in your relationships with God, family, and friends?
Has your impatience brought about negative consequences in your life? Such as anger, division with others, etc. Give examples.
Has the impatience of others made you anger, frustrated, and stressed? Why?
How do you deal with the impatience of others? Give examples
What does waiting on the Lord look like to you?
Give an example on how you have run before God instead of waiting on Him. And has that brought negative or positive results?
In those times of waiting on the Lord, do you tend to blame Him for your impatience? And also blame Him for the circumstance that you are in?
What could you do this week to be more patient with others in your own life?
[i] The American Heritage College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Copyright 2002
[ii] James Strong, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville TN 1990.
[iii] John Piper, Sermon on Battling the Unbelief of Impatience, Minneapolis MN
[iv] John Piper, Sermon on Battling the Unbelief of Impatience, Minneapolis MN
[v] Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know, Broadman & Holman Publishers,
Nashville TN, Copyright 2000, p 116.
[vi] Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know, Broadman & Holman Publishers,
Nashville TN, Copyright 2000, p 116.
[vii] The NIV Study Bible New International Version, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI.
Isaiah 30:12-17
[viii] The NIV Study Bible New International Version, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI.
Isaiah 30:18
[ix] Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, April 5th Morning, Hendrickson Publishers, Copyright 1991,
[x] The NIV Study Bible New International Version, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI.
Daniel 3:17-18
[xi] The NIV Study Bible New International Version, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI.
Isaiah 40:31
[xii] The NIV Study Bible New International Version, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI.
Psalm 130:5-7
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