Some people consider me a reckless driver. I wouldn’t call myself reckless, just impatient. I know that I’m an impatient driver because when a car in front of me in the fast lane drives slowly, I immediately overtake it on the right lane.
Once when we were talking about my driving habits, my son Danny said that my compulsion to be punctual may be the cause of my impatience while driving. I think he’s right. I pride myself on being on time. The problem is that I usually give myself just enough driving time to get there exactly on time. So I have to speed when traffic is even slightly more congested than I expected. Impatience is the source of my wild driving habits.
Actually, impatience is the root cause of not only reckless driving but many problems in life. It’s often the source of depression and anger. For example, Shepherds and their spouses can get disappointed or discouraged when their non-believing house church members don’t accept Christ or when their believing members don’t grow in spiritual maturity quickly enough. Impatience is the cause.
Some people get frustrated when their businesses don’t grow rapidly or when their careers don’t advance fast enough. They sometimes take short cuts, make ethical compromises, or even resort to illegal practices. Impatience is their problem.
God is not impatient at all. Moses killed an Egyptian and became a fugitive because he was too impatient to wait for the right time to lead his people out of Egypt. But God waited for 40 years before He called him for His service.
God promised Abraham a son, but waited until he was close to 100 years old before he gave him Isaac. God told the prophet Samuel to anoint David as king but it was many years before David began his rule.
Jesus promised that he would come again “soon” but we are still waiting for his second coming. God and Jesus don’t seem impatient. On the contrary; both the Father and the Son seem to be infinitely patient.
If we want to become true servants of God, we must learn to be patient. How do we overcome our impatience? One way is to keep our regular prayer times at any cost. When we get busy, one of the first things we drop is our prayer time. When we continue to keep our prayer time without shortening it in the midst of a busy schedule, our impatience slowly subsides. And when we rid ourselves of our impatience, we are able to wait for God’s time and serve Him faithfully even when there seems to be no fruit.
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