trying the patience of a saint lost judgment

If you are tempted not to wait peacefully for God, to let him give you your next move - if you are tempted to give up on him or go ahead without him - please realize that this is a moment for great spiritual warfare. So what we have in Psalm 130:5 is a clear illustration that the way to battle impatience is to buttress your hope (or faith) in God, and the way to buttress your hope in God is to listen to his word, especially his promises. Hebrews says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.” “In his word I hope.” And hope is just faith in the future tense. Now, how does the psalmist sustain his patience as he waits for the Lord to show him the next move? Verse 5 says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.” The strength that sustains you in patience is hope, and the source of hope is the word of God. “Battle the unbelief of impatience by preaching to your soul with warnings and promises.” It’s not impetuous, and it’s not despairing. It’s staying at your appointed place, while he says Stay, or it’s going at his appointed pace, while he says Go. Waiting for the Lord is the opposite of running ahead of the Lord and it’s the opposite of bailing out on the Lord. “Waiting for the Lord” is an Old Testament way of describing the opposite of impatience. How does the psalmist battle against impatience in his heart? How the Psalmist Battled Against Impatienceīefore we look at Isaiah 30, I want you to see this relationship between the promises of God and the patience of the believer in Psalm 130:5. And so, the chief weapon is the word of God, especially his promises. And so, the battle against impatience is a battle against unbelief. Patience in well-doing is the fruit of faith.

And the reason it’s not is because faith is not an optional virtue. Patience in doing the will of God is not an optional virtue in the Christian life. Hebrews 6:12 - “Do not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Romans 2:7 - “To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, God will give eternal life.” Luke 21:19 - “By your endurance you will gain your lives.” Listen to these verses to sense how vital this battle is: It’s the issue of whether you live by faith and whether you inherit the promises of eternal life. Whichever way you have to battle impatience, the main point today is that it’s a battle against unbelief, and therefore it’s not merely a personality issue. If you don’t turn your car around and go home, you rush into some ill-advised detour to try to beat the system. It tempts you to be impetuous, or hasty, or impulsive, or reckless. On the other side, impatience tempts you to make rash counter moves against the obstacles in your way. That’s one way the unbelief of impatience tempts you. I won’t keep this job, or take this challenge, rear this child, or stay in this marriage, or live this life. If there’s going to be frustration, and opposition, and difficulty, then I’ll just forget it. On the one side, it tempts you to give up, bail out. When the way you planned to run your day, or the way you planned to live your life is cut off or slowed down, the unbelief of impatience tempts you in two directions, depending partly on your personality, partly on circumstances: The opposite of impatience is a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness either to wait for God where you are in the place of obedience, or to persevere at the pace he allows on the road of obedience - to wait in his place, or to go at his pace. The opposite of impatience is not a glib, superficial denial of frustration. Or, it can be a major combat over a handicap, or disease, or circumstance that knocks out half your dreams. The battle with impatience can be a little skirmish over a long wait in a checkout lane. It springs up in our hearts when the road to success gets muddy, or strewn with boulders, or blocked by some fallen tree. It’s what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God’s timing or the goodness of his guidance.

Trying the patience of a saint lost judgment