Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him, Those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the land. Ps. 37:7 & 9 By your patience possess your souls. Luke 21:19 (NKJV). You have need of patience… Hebrews 10:36 (NKJV). But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete James 1:4 (NKJV).

In the above verses, the Holy Spirit shows us what an important element of patience is in our Christian life.

Problem: when we wait upon God, we soon discover how impatient we are.

We may confess that at times we are not patient with others, or not patient with circumstances that hinder us, or not patient with ourselves or our slow progress in Christian growth.

But perhaps we need to develop patience while waiting upon God. If we set ourselves to wait upon God, we may find that it is with HIM we are not patient.

This is probably because He did not act fast enough, or as soon as we wished. We asked Him to do something but we get no immediate answer.

Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land. Ps. 37:34.

Let’s examine this verse. To ‘Wait on the Lord,” – that has to do with worship (Inner life).

“And keep His way,” – that has to do with our walk of faith (Outer life).

The OUTER life must be in harmony with the INNER life.

The INNER life must be the stimulus and the strength for the OUTER life.

If we do not keep His Way, our failure to wait on Him (lack of patience) can bring no blessing.

We must surrender to full obedience. We sometimes sing the hymn, I Surrender All.

Do we surrender? Really?

If we are honest, we probably keep areas of our life for ‘self’, they are hush-hush. Those areas are hidden and we keep them away from the eyes of others. Those personal areas are private; we want to keep them secret; we don’t want them revealed.

When we see others around us, who are prosperous and happy while at the same time forsaking God’s ways, while we are in difficulty or suffering, we are in danger of worrying over what appears unjust. Gradually we often yield to doing those same things because we want to seek our prosperity.

To have patience, to wait upon God means you must give up your whole being (self) to God without reserve and also without doubt.

The starting-point of patience with God is to recognize our utter and absolute helplessness.

The failures in our Christian life are because we attempt to conquer and obey in our strength.

In other words, we try to do it ourselves.

To say it bluntly, we don’t wait upon God.

This shows that we are not patient. True patience is foreign to our self-confident nature. Yet, patience is an essential element of true faith. Patience means to lose our self-will in God’s perfect will.

We should not be impatient:

 1. Whether it is in the exercise of prayer and worship that you find it difficult to wait.
 2. Whether it is the delay in respect of definite prayer requests.
 3. Whether it is in the fulfilling of your heart’s desire for the revelation of God.

If you desire a close walk with the Savior, yet find one or more of the above a stumbling block, then take it to prayer. If you have an honest heartfelt request to learn from the Lord, He WILL answer. But the key is to wait (be patient) and listen.

You may be amazed to learn how much God wants to talk to you, but you may not be listening to Him or you may not be expecting an answer. Read the following verses:

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13 NIV).

God is gentle and quiet. If we are not waiting (patience), we will not hear His message to us.

God uses patience to teach us.

                             Lord, give me the patience to wait for your voice to speak.