Impatience has been a longstanding problem of mine. I'm not talking about "the kids are getting on my nerves" type of impatience (although I battle that too). I'm talking about the "I want it now" impatience. What I want might be good. What I desire might be God's desire for my life. I might be feeling impatient for His plan to unfold. I might be tempted to think God is slow.
God is opening my eyes that patience is the fruit of faith and, you got it, impatience the fruit of unbelief. Ouch.
For a girl that has called herself "impatient and prone to rash decisions" this is a real battle. And a sin that needs confessed and my direct attention applied to God's word, His commands and His promises.
I listened to this John Piper sermon this morning, while laying in my bed sick and frustrated at my disrupted plans.
I won't bore you with all the pathetic ways I was feeling sorry for myself. It's just a cold. And for some reason I am deluded into thinking that the good in the world pivots on the timely completion of my to-do list. I think, in my nearsightedness, that putting these items off means putting off other things in our life and somehow missing God's plan. Somehow I surmise that God is looking at me, wringing His hands and thinking, "well great, now what do I do." Somewhere down the line I think it all has to do with me.
Guess what? God has His own agenda and His own timing and His own way. It's not about me.
He is infinitly good.
He is infinitly wise.
He is infinitly powerful.
He has a better way and when I look at His way as an inturrption or a hinderence to my own, I am looking through the lenses of unbelief.
He is teaching me.
I am a slow learner.
He is a patient teacher.
Listen here: Battling the Unbelief of Impatience
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