Confession Time
Ssshhh, let’s just keep this private between you and me.
I have no time for patience.
It takes too long. 🙂
Seriously, practicing patience is hard.
There’s my timetable of when I think things should happen, (silly human), and then there’s God’s timing.
We know Who controls the outcome of everything in our lives, and it isn’t you and me.
Hurry Up, And Wait
As hurried and busy as we all are, it still seems we do a lot of waiting.
Waiting on this person, waiting on that thing.
It doesn’t matter what it is, even the little stuff sometimes.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
Years ago, I worked for a female executive who was very generous with her gift-giving. That’s a good trait for a boss to have, right?
I’ll never forget one birthday of mine.
She gave me a nice gift certificate for a facial at a fancy beauty salon.
I was excited.
It wasn’t just any facial. It was nine layers!
Facials come in nine layers?
Who knew?
I’ll never forget it. The day arrived, and I lay there on the salon table in a small backroom as the esthetician smoothed each layer on my face. There were layers of seaweed and clay, plus lots of other rejuvenating, moisture-producing, ingredients mixed in.
It felt good, and it smelled good.
Time to close my eyes and relax.
This facial is great.
Aaahhh, so great.
Truly.
#reallygreat.
The Reveal
The tech told me to relax for the next hour as the facial mask did its work.
She then abandoned (I mean left) me alone in that little room.
Everything was fine for a few minutes, and then the ingredients started to harden on my face.
The nine layers stiffened up like concrete.
My head, weighing about a thousand pounds now, started to hurt.
The new age music she piped into the room began to creep me out, and the blanket on top of me was getting all kinds of warm.
Where was she? How long has it been?
I tried to move my concrete head.
Fear took over.
The Bible says many times not to fear.
Does that command include suffering through a nine layer facial mask?
Where was she?
What if they all leave and forget about me back here?
After one of the longest hours of my life for the sake of beauty, the tech finally came back and took off my constricting layers.
I silently assured myself that I would never go through that again.
No Time For Patience? Practice Makes Perfect
I am not a fan of feeling out of control.
Roller coasters scare me.
On a serious note, how often does that happen to us in life?
We go into a situation, and it doesn’t quite turn out the way we planned. In fact, things can go terribly wrong. Layer builds upon layer of disappointment and we feel suffocated in misery.
Turn Your Impatience Into A Strength
We can get ourselves into so many predicaments, and then we want God to bail us out.
It could take awhile.
While we’re waiting, whether it’s a few minutes or even years, God hasn’t gone anywhere.
He’s still in control, loving us with His perfect love, and He knows full well our real pain and suffering.
Restlessness Is Another Opportunity To Pray
God always has a reason and can use our trials for His glory. We may not understand the reasons for our predicament at the time, but when impatience hits, instead of grumbling about it, why not stop and pray silently?
Pray for God’s will, His timing, and His grace.
Lord, please help us with our lack of patience.
Help us to trust You more, no matter what.
Don’t Move Ahead Of God
My husband and I talk about how often, when we’ve blindly rushed headlong into making a big decision, it turns out to be wrong every time. On the other hand, when we’ve specifically prayed, waited on God’s timing, what we thought was good for us either rightly fell into place or it didn’t. We know God was with us throughout and we trust His ways are best, even when His answer is No! Perspective and perseverance are essential.
Whether it’s waiting for the right job or trusting God through our illnesses, we should seek His comfort through the valley of frustrations.
The Apostle Paul encouraged believers in the book of Romans to remain firm in their faith.
Faith is living and active. It represents our confidence in God’s grace.
**12Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. – Romans 12:12, ESV.
Keep your sense of humor, and know that the One who created that beautiful sunset outside, also created you. God never makes a mistake.
I hope this post has brought you a smile and some encouragement.
God bless you.
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*Sinclair B. Ferguson quotation, public domain and as quoted from Christian quotes.info
**Scripture quotation is from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
