Mind set five – don’t make me wait, I am very needy
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
There are so many who lack patience and they want what they want, when they want it – and that is NOW. We live in such an instant society that it carries over into our spiritual life as well. We have instant cereal, microwavable meals, instant entertainment, instant web connection, and on we could go. We are so used to having everything we want and need at our finger tips or right away, that we think this should be the norm in our spiritual life as well. Often you hear Christians complaining about praying and not receiving the answer. A young woman was having marital problems and asked a minister what to do. He instructed her to pray and seek God; about a week or two later, he asked her how it was going and her response was, “I did pray, but that didn’t work.” After two weeks of praying she gave up because “it did not work”. How many have done just this in areas of concern in their life. They pray for a little while and when the answer does not come soon as they think it should they give up.
Peter instructed us about being patient in his second epistle where he was telling about the coming of the Lord – “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Too often people overlook what Peter is saying and equate time as one of God’s days with a thousand of our years, but actually he is giving a point of reference to help us put it in perspective about our time in relation to God’s time. There are no clocks or calendars in heaven; God inhabits eternity – the eternal present – we are foolish to try to limit Him to a set time period.
So in our prayers we should be mindful that while we seek the answer immediately, in God’s time period it may only be a minute or two while for us that may equate into years. God told Abram he would have a son, but the promise came twenty-five years after the promise was spoken. All the while Abram prayed, had his name changed to Abraham and finally he and Sarah had a son.
Another problem that often accompanies the “I don’t want to wait” mindset is the “feel sorry for me” mindset. “I have prayed for so long and endured so much, don’t you feel sorry for me?” We try to invoke pity from others by our whining and moaning over unanswered prayer. Too often we are the problem behind our praying and we do not realize it and we get into a “poor me” mood. King Saul had problems and he even expressed why doesn’t anyone feel sorry for me? “is none of you that is sorry for me,” (1 Sam 22:8). He was backslid and God had withdrawn His Spirit from Saul and now David was to be the next king, and Jonathan, Saul’s son, was a great friend to David and Saul probably prayed (some) and now has gotten to the point of feeling sorry for him and he wanted others to do the same.
The Psalmist tells us to wait on the Lord – “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” David waited for years before he finally became king over all Israel and many throughout history have waited long for answers/promises to be fulfilled.
Be certain of this though if you are praying for healing of some sort: there are three healings God performs – through doctors and medicines; without doctors or medicines (miraculous) and perfect healing (He takes you to heaven).
Next week I will start a series on walking with Jesus – don’t miss it!