Remix: Student Devotionals

Fruit of the Spirit Pt. 2 - Week 1, Day 2

Day 2: God's Waiting Room (Learning Patience)

Every single one of us struggles every single day with being patient with ourselves, with others, and even with God.

We get impatient with ourselves because we are still dealing with the same issues in our life that we thought we would have overcome by now.

We get impatient with ourselves because we keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

We get impatient with others because they don't answer fast enough or accomplish what we think should be accomplished by now. Nothing seems to test our patience more than the people we love the most and are the closest to.

Did anyone lose their patience with their parents this week or with your brother or your sister? Your family has the ability to push your buttons and send you to the crazy zone probably more than anyone else. They know where to bug you, and they know how to get to you, and you know how to get to them too.

When the patience runs low, one person wounds another person with their words. When the patience runs low, the looks come out that make the other person think that they are a stupid moron. When the patience runs low, there is screaming and name-calling, and eye-rolling.

We get impatient with God because He doesn't answer our prayers fast enough, or He doesn't do what we think He should be doing.

Have you ever wondered why God makes us wait? God came to Abraham when He was 75 years old and told him that he was finally going to be a father. Abraham waits 24 years until the promise is fulfilled when he and his wife, Sarah, finally have a son.

God told Moses that he would lead His people into the Promised Land, and then they had to wait 40 years before they could enter because of their lack of faith in God.

In the Old Testament, Godly prophets waited for a Messiah to come. Godly people watched and waited as one generation after another came and left.

Today, we are still waiting for Jesus to return to earth and take us home with Him to heaven.

Why does God make us wait? Why does He want us to be patient people? I mean, if God can do anything, why doesn't He bring us relief and help and, most of all, answers now?

Write this down in the front of your Bible because this little saying is going to help you when you find yourself in God's waiting room. "What God does in us while we wait is just as important as what we are waiting for."

In the struggles and waiting rooms of life, we learn about faith, trust, and hope in God. If you received everything you wanted when you wanted it, then what role would faith have in your life? God wants us to rely on Him every single day, so He will put us in situations where we have to learn to be patient. It's not a fun place to be, but it is in the waiting rooms of life that God does His best work in us and through us. Think about that today.

Time Out:

1. Who are you the most impatient with? Yourself, others, or God?


2. Why are you that way?


3. Why do you think God makes us wait?


4. Do you think it was hard for all those people in the Bible to wait on God's timing? What do you think they did while they waited?


 Let me give you a hint to the last question. I believe they hung onto God with white-knuckle intensity, and I believe they kept being faithful to God while they waited.


5. Look up Isaiah 40:28-31. Pay close attention to verse 31. Those who hope in the Lord (that can also be translated to those who wait on the Lord), what does God do for them?

 

"Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying." Romans 12:12