What happens when I am patient?

Isaiah 40:31Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

Waiting reveals our need for God’s strength and gives God the opportunity to exercise his might on our behalf. As an athlete regains strength from sleep and time away from the contest, so we will find strength by abandoning your own efforts and trusting the Lord to work. He will bring us what we need when we need it.

Psalm 40:1I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.

Delays and difficulties are not signs that God is ignoring us. As we wait for God to work, we can practice being patient. We can have hope and confidence because we know that he hears our prayers in those hard times.

Lamentations 3:25The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.

Hebrews 10:36Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

Those who give up lose out. They are not necessarily being punished for giving up; they simply are absent and cannot see God in action.

2 Peter 1:5-9Make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

Patience is like a chisel, shaping godly character. In Peter’s picture, the marble block is being shaped to include faith, moral excellence, and knowledge of God and his Word. God patiently sculpts us into a person he can use to show his love to everyone we meet.

1 Peter 2:19-20God is pleased when, conscious of his will, you patiently endure unjust treatment. Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you.

When we refuse to take things into our own hands, God takes them into his. God brings justice and vindication to those who wait on him.

Habakkuk 2:3If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.

God may seem to delay, but he is never late. Our self-centered and time-centered perspective makes us incapable of seeing things from God’s point of view. What he promises will happen according to his perfect timing.