Daily Huddle - Mon May 20th, 2019 Are You Impatient?

Love you all, praying for you.  
 
God is incredibly practical – uncomfortably practical at times - but so loving.  He was showing me recently…  Proverbs 19:11 -  “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.”   Interesting – patience comes from wisdom.  Wisdom produces patience.  If you lack patience, really… you lack wisdom.  It’s the thing that brings the thing.  What irritates you?  How long does it take for you to become irritated.  Not long?  How quickly impatience can surface and become a stumbling block for us.    
 
Impatient – One who is restless, uneasy or fretful under suffering or delay.  (Is this you?)  Not bearing pain with composure.  (Ouch)  Not enduring discomfort without the desire to be rid of it.  Not enduring quietly.  Hasty, eager, not enduring delay.  “The impatient man will not wait for information, he often acts with precipitance.  (Precipitance – falling or rushing headlong, rashly hurried or hasty)  We are impatient of restraints, or of wrongs or of delays.  Impatient at the delay of expected or desired good.   Impatient for the return of a friend, the arrival of the mail, or impatient under evils of any kind.
 
Wow, how often is this me? Not enduring well, uncomposed, restless because of delay or unfairness.  But the fruit of the Spirit is patience – it’s the opposite of what comes naturally.  Patient is not complacent - just like meek is not weak.  Impatience is a squander of time, a foolish use of energy, a missing of the opportunity of which God allowed this circumstance – to produce in you.  Impatient is – truth be told – a lack of submission.  And can even become an accusation of God.  Job 40:8  Would you really accuse me of injustice, so you can claim you are right?  Prov 19:13 – A man’s own foolishness leads him astray, yet his heart rages against the Lord.   Here was God’s answer to Job.  Job 38:4  “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?  Tell me, if you understand.  Who marked off its dimensions?  Surely you know!  Who stretched a measuring line across it?  On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?  (Oops – I was impatient about what?  I started to doubt God because of… what was that again?  Never mind.)
 
Sometimes we suffer ironically from self-inflicted impatience.  Sometimes delays that you are impatient with - are caused by your own inaction.  The ball is in your court!  God (and everybody else) is waiting on you to act!  Ask Him!  Or as is often the case, He told you what to do – some time ago – when are you going to do it?  

Is there anything in your life right now that is a delay?  Something you are waiting on? Frustrated about?  How should we handle the temptation of impatience?  First - Is there anything that God told you to do that you have not done yet?  Ask Him to remind you - then do it!  Next Ask God to reveal His purpose in this circumstance of waiting - so you don't miss anything.  Praise Him, Thank Him, and focus yourself – your mind and your effort on what He has told you to do – in the meantime.  Start with that sacrifice of praise.  And as you get busy doing what He told you to do – impatience melts in the light of obedience. 
 
Patience.  Enduring evil or delay without murmuring or fretfulness.  Sustaining afflictions with fortitude, calmness and submission to the divine will.  Not easily provoked, calm under suffering of injuries or offenses, not revengeful.  Persevering, constant in pursuit or exertion, calmly diligent.  Not hasty, not over eager or impetuous – waiting or expecting with calmness – without discontent.  Patient – to compose one’s self. 
 
The devil wants to drain you and ruin you with discontentment – impatience.  Praying for you that you will always praise – that you will seek God’s will in every delay – and be fully focused on what He has for you in the moment – in this hour.  You’ll see impatience be dispatched, and you will see patience grow in you.  You will be busy in the joy of obedience.  PiVAT before dinner is the start.  And PRISM throughout the day – keeps your mind on Christ – the source of your joy, and the key to your success.   Praying that you will be thankful and full of praise under every pressure, and any delay.  God has good for you – even in this! 
 
Love you all,
dad

Photo Credit: Kwan Fung