| February 1, 2022 -- I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
Psalm 40:1 “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Reinhold Neibuhr One thing almost all of us need, even if we don’t realize it, or don’t admit it, is more patience. I’m reminded of the woman who prayed “Lord, give me more patience, and give it to me right now!” I’ll admit that I could use some more patience myself, but I’m getting much better at it than I used to be, with practice. And that is part of the secret to becoming more patient, practice it. I headed this article with Neibuhr’s Serenity Prayer, because there is a close relationship between serenity and patience. The more we learn to accept the things we cannot change the more patient we become when the inevitable happens and we have to wait. I’m thinking not only about the more common ones, such as traffic lights and doctor’s waiting rooms, but also the cases where we are stuck in a traffic jam, or any other instance when there is no alternative but to wait.
But waiting for all of these is easier to adjust to than waiting for the Lord to act when we feel we really need his intervention. This becomes more difficult in part because we want instant gratification. Somehow, we feel that our perceived wants and needs are of utmost importance, and that God should take care of them “RIGHT NOW!”
In so doing, we are substituting our own judgment for God’s judgment. We forget to put our faith and trust in God and wait patiently for him. God knows both our wants and our needs, and knows much better than we ever could what, in the long run, will be best for us. I know this is very hard for us; it means, among other things, admitting that we are not really in control of our lives. And God, in whom we trust, is not answering our prayers in accordance with our own plans and assumptions, but rather what in his much greater wisdom is a greater good for us.
In Proverbs we read “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”. Or in the words of the AAA slogan: ‘Let go and let God’.”
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