In his great love, the Lord is patient with us, and we need to learn to be patient with him.
To understand God’s patience, you need to sit in front of a high chair and feed a one-year-old. Feeding a toddler takes a long time. They don’t just eat their food; they play with it. They play with you. Toddlers press their little fingers into the sweet potatoes and wipe them on their face. They shut their mouths tightly when mom presents the tiny spoon that holds one or two Cheerios. They spread food on the table and throw it on the floor.
And mom is in a hurry. She has 20 other things to do. But you cannot rush a one-year-old in the long, long process of eating. How do moms do it, several times a day, for years? How do moms not lose it emotionally again and again and scream at their kid to eat?
Moms can wait because they love their children. “Love is patient” (1 Corinthians 13:4). Moms don’t always feel love, but they always want what’s best for their kids.
God’s patient love
“God is love,” says 1 John 4:8, and therefore like a good mother God is patient. He waits for us. He is longsuffering and forbearing. The Lord endures our wrongdoing, weaknesses, and failures. He does not treat us as an ambitious, driven manager might treat a slow employee, but as a parent treats a beloved child.
He is like a farmer who patiently waits for the crops to grow and ripen. God waits for us to become the people he wants us to be.
Romans 2:4 speaks of “the riches” of God’s “forbearance and patience.” If God’s patience was measured in dollars, he would be wealthier than all the millionaires and billionaires of the world put together.
In God’s great definition of his own nature to Moses, he describes himself as “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6).
Examples of God’s patience
For example, God allowed the wicked Amorites to hold their ground in the Promised Land for 400 years until their sin reached its full measure. Only then did God deliver the nation of Israel from Egypt and bring them into the Promised Land to give it to them as their possession. (Genesis 15:13–16)
During the time of the kings who followed David, God endured the sinfulness of the kings and the nation of Israel for hundreds of years before finally, regretfully turning them over to Assyria and Babylon and sending them into exile.
Exhibit A
The apostle Paul wrote that God worked in his life with the purpose of showing God’s patience for all to see: “I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:16).
Paul says, “formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent” (1 Timothy 1:13). The Book of Acts details this:
“Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” (Acts 8:3)
Paul testified to others: “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women” (Acts 22:4)
“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.” (Acts 26:9–11)
Paul carried on this violent opposition for 1–2 years! In God’s inscrutable wisdom, he patiently endured this opposition and then finally knocked Saul to the ground with blazing light and revealed Jesus to him. Paul says this two-year period displayed the “perfect patience” of Jesus (1 Timothy 1:16).
Waiting for your patient God
No doubt, those Christians that Paul was persecuting had their struggles with God’s perfect patience in this case, but God brought about the highest good through it. There are many times in your life when God’s perfect patience may seem imperfect to you. But his patience always has a good, eternal purpose.
Scripture says:
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
“For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4)
The Lord waited until Abraham was 75-years-old and Sarah was 65 to promise them a miracle child, and then he waited 25 more years to fulfill the promise.
Jesus has been coming soon for over 2,000 years.
Presumption
But we must never presume on the patience of God. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus told one church:
“I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.” (Revelation 2:20–23)
God’s patience is long but not endless. “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4)
Love and mysteries
God’s loving, wise patience explains many of his inscrutable ways with us and the people in the Bible.
God’s loving patience explains why at times he seems slow to administer justice.
God’s patience explains why some notorious sinners live long and prosper.
God’s loving patience explains why we so often must wait on the Lord. Sometimes God seems slower to act than a glacier moving across the earth, than an oak tree growing in a field. If love is patient, then God is clearly the most loving being in the universe.
God’s loving patience explains why we must wait for the answer to many prayers and the fulfillment of many promises. He “acts for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).
We must wait because God is love, and his love is patient.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: We want God to be patient with us, but we don’t want to have to be patient with God. Sinners dangerously presume on the patience of God.
God’s way: In love, in perfect wisdom, he seeks our highest good by waiting to act.
Life principle: Therefore,
- Don’t give up on your prayers and faith.
- Don’t give up on yourself.
- Don’t give up on the souls of sinners.
- Don’t give up on our nation.
- “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (Psalm 27:14)
- Be as patient with God as he is patient with you. You’re in a long, slow dance with a patient God.