Patience and the Slow Work of God
Taken from a Red Rock News Article
Rev. Dona Johnson | Aug 4, 2024
Being more patient in your daily life reduces stress levels and involves a concerted effort to manage negative emotions, reframe challenging situations, and maintain a focus on long-term goals and values. Many of us experience periods or times when we are impatient. We pack a lot of activities into each day. Due to technologies, we are more accessible than ever before. Traffic
congestion, 24-hour-news-cycle and people’s various moods and personalities can trigger our emotions and cause us to react impatiently.
What causes a person to be impatient? Impatience is expressed when something we want to accomplish takes longer than expected. We become impatient when our efforts towards a goal or a desire get frustrated. Or we become impatient when we’re forced to compromise on something or someone disappoints us. When any of these things happen, we can easily become annoyed, anxious, bitter, resentful and for some, we feel offended and disrespected. Our impatience, if not kept in check can hurt our loved ones, and long-term impact the quality of our relationships. Patient people have an easier time cultivating deeper friendships with others. But in terms of faith, many sins, impulsive mistakes, outbursts and flared tempers come from the lack of patience.
Biblically speaking, at the heart of impatience is self-centeredness or selfishness. In other words, impatient people want their
expectations met on their terms and timeframe. In the real world, this is not the way the world works.
Paul tells us that patience is the fruit of the Spirit, it is evidence of the Holy Spirit alive and working in us (Gal. 5:22-23). Paul also describes patience as an important characteristic of love—love displays patience and kindness (1 Cor 13:4). God is much more patient than we are. As a general rule God works incrementally—a shift in perspective here, a small breakthrough there, slowly enlarging our capacity to see and receive what he has for us. Of course, God has the will, the power and capacity to transform us on the spot. When someone suddenly is cured of an addiction or illness, it’s a tremendous spiritual lift. And yet, most of the time becoming like Jesus is more often a slow, steady journey. Eugene Peterson has named this journey in patience “a long obedience in the same direction.” Learning to be still, to be at peace in the midst of chaos, crisis and reactive people doesn’t happen overnight. We live in a world that expects quick fixes or looks for the short cut. However, changes in the heart, replacing bad habits and doing the inner spiritual work takes time, intentional effort and prayer because God works exceedingly slow.
And yet. sometimes, we think we are ready for what God is preparing for us, and yet we are not. So, God takes the time to grow and transform us in ways we are able to grasp and receive. And although God’s work is often slow, it does not mean God is inactive. Peter beautifully describes God’s patience, ““Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8–9). And so we pray, we examine and lay out our lives before God and we thank him for the slow, patient and grace-filled work he is doing within us every minute of every day.