To Wait with Patience

Do you like to wait for things? I don’t. It never seems to matter whether I am waiting for something pleasant or something I’m dreading: waiting is just as difficult either way.

Except when I wait with patience.

Romans 8:24-25 gives some good perspective on waiting. “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

You see, patient waiting is fueled by hope. Not just any hope, but the sure, certain hope of God’s promises. When we are impatient about something, we have lost sight of hope. We grow impatient because we are caught up in our own desires and schedules, and are not trusting that God’s timing is best. We fret and we fume, we complain and stew in our irritation that things just aren’t happening like we think they should happen. We don’t like to wait.

But what is waiting for? Verse 25 says, “But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Patience must be practiced, and waiting teaches us both to hope and to wait with patience.

Romans 5 is another passage about hope and patience:

“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (3-5)

Did you notice the attitude towards tribulations? I wonder how noticeable Christians would be if we looked at the difficult things that come at us as opportunity to grow. What would the world around us think if they saw us glorying in what God will do with our trial instead of bemoaning what He has allowed? Would they know we were fully trusting a loving God? Would they see our certain hope that God will work all our trials together for good? (Romans 8:28)

It’s a difficult thing to wait with patience, and it requires the pinning of our focus on the sure hope of God’s promises. When we have waited with patience, we experience the faithfulness of God to do exactly as He promised, and that strengthens and builds up our hope. And the hope built upon the Word of God will never fail.

The process of trials teaches us patience and builds our faith so that we can hope more firmly when the next trial comes. Each time God shows Himself faithful, His love is “shed abroad” in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. God’s attributes are inextricably linked, and it is the loving and merciful God who sovereignly allows trials in our lives for the good purpose of growing us and demonstrating His unfailing love and faithfulness again and again.

The trials are because He loves us. The waiting is because He wants us to learn to rest in the patience of sure hope, trusting that He will show Himself as faithful as ever.