It was John Piper who pointed out that impatience comes as a result of our unwillingness to trust God either that we are in the place he has appointed for us or that we are moving at the pace he has chosen for us. Those two elements are the key - his place and his pace – because these are the points at which the proverbial rubber hits the road, the points where either faith operates or we turn to our resources and insist that we have to do it ourselves because God doesn't seem to be working.
We have to acknowledge that there are occasions in our lives when events take a direction that seems to indicate that God is no longer around. We are greeted with roadblocks on every turn, obstacles and hindrances lie across our path, while mishaps dog all our plans and frustrate all we seek to do. Meanwhile we watch deadlines approach and begin to panic. We wonder if God has got it right, whether his timing can be trusted or his ability to help relied on. So we demand that God act in the way that we feel is right for us: surely he can understand that we want this progressed faster, at our pace rather than his? In short, we become impatient.
The issue here is not whether we have to chose between doing nothing (i.e. waiting for delivery from heaven) or doing everything ourselves about the matter in hand. For instance, missionaries frequently have to stand waiting for visas, sometimes for days, while petty bureaucrats bluster and delay, sometimes waiting for a bribe. Such tedious processes can be shortened miraculously and they pray that it will be so, but they know that God does not smooth every path automatically. My brother once received a visa back practically by return of post, leaving everyone dumbfounded at such a rapid turnaround, but mostly God's answer comes at the end of a long line of people, so the need therefore is to learn patience in the face of despotic officials and apparent divine inactivity.
It is how we handle it that counts, perhaps coming down to the simple question of how we react and what we do first. Watch people when their expectations are dashed and their hopes unfulfilled and you will often see rage, lashing out at the nearest target, a desperate impatience to see the situation reversed, followed by the inevitable depression and bitterness when none of that produces the desired change. Alternatively, the vehement protest might just work, but that then reinforces the mistaken belief that it is our energy that counts, so the next time we leap into action all the more quickly.
But Paul in one of his letters to the church in Corinth speaks of a different spirit. When his own life was in danger at one point – and we know no other detail about this incident – he reflects that “this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.” He speaks of the deliverance he experienced and then of his confidence that God would continue to do so “as you help us by your prayers.” In all of it the spirit of his words is that, even in suffering, he relies on God and waits patiently for him, an attitude that is reflected in the way he prayed. I think most of us have to confess that patience and trust like this do not come naturally. It is much more our style to try to move things on at our own pace first and only pray when all other avenues have been exhausted. Yet Paul's testimony was he saw God work powerfully as he and the church prayed, and if we were to make prayer the priority he did then we would be able to say the same. And maybe the answer would find us in a place we had not chosen, or moving at a pace we did not really want, but it would be God's choice, and that makes all the difference.
We have to acknowledge that there are occasions in our lives when events take a direction that seems to indicate that God is no longer around. We are greeted with roadblocks on every turn, obstacles and hindrances lie across our path, while mishaps dog all our plans and frustrate all we seek to do. Meanwhile we watch deadlines approach and begin to panic. We wonder if God has got it right, whether his timing can be trusted or his ability to help relied on. So we demand that God act in the way that we feel is right for us: surely he can understand that we want this progressed faster, at our pace rather than his? In short, we become impatient.
The issue here is not whether we have to chose between doing nothing (i.e. waiting for delivery from heaven) or doing everything ourselves about the matter in hand. For instance, missionaries frequently have to stand waiting for visas, sometimes for days, while petty bureaucrats bluster and delay, sometimes waiting for a bribe. Such tedious processes can be shortened miraculously and they pray that it will be so, but they know that God does not smooth every path automatically. My brother once received a visa back practically by return of post, leaving everyone dumbfounded at such a rapid turnaround, but mostly God's answer comes at the end of a long line of people, so the need therefore is to learn patience in the face of despotic officials and apparent divine inactivity.
It is how we handle it that counts, perhaps coming down to the simple question of how we react and what we do first. Watch people when their expectations are dashed and their hopes unfulfilled and you will often see rage, lashing out at the nearest target, a desperate impatience to see the situation reversed, followed by the inevitable depression and bitterness when none of that produces the desired change. Alternatively, the vehement protest might just work, but that then reinforces the mistaken belief that it is our energy that counts, so the next time we leap into action all the more quickly.
But Paul in one of his letters to the church in Corinth speaks of a different spirit. When his own life was in danger at one point – and we know no other detail about this incident – he reflects that “this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.” He speaks of the deliverance he experienced and then of his confidence that God would continue to do so “as you help us by your prayers.” In all of it the spirit of his words is that, even in suffering, he relies on God and waits patiently for him, an attitude that is reflected in the way he prayed. I think most of us have to confess that patience and trust like this do not come naturally. It is much more our style to try to move things on at our own pace first and only pray when all other avenues have been exhausted. Yet Paul's testimony was he saw God work powerfully as he and the church prayed, and if we were to make prayer the priority he did then we would be able to say the same. And maybe the answer would find us in a place we had not chosen, or moving at a pace we did not really want, but it would be God's choice, and that makes all the difference.
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