Patience and perseverance are vital for the Christian life because God will make you wait for the best things. Why? We rarely ever know why, but the effects of this waiting and seeking are well documented. When you wait for something your desire for that thing is deepened and refined. When we seek God for things, God often responds by refining our desires. He wants to purge away the selfishness and all the other self-destructive motives that may distort our desires. He wants us to know what we really need and sometimes we need to be empty enough and desperate enough to recognise that. Ultimately God himself is the answer to our every need. Very often we don’t recognise how much we need God until God is all we have. There is a freedom here that is worth all the pain of the journey. Throughout the Bible there are stories of people who waited for long periods of time in difficult circumstances before they saw God come through for them. God may not always explain why, but he does make evident the difference that waiting makes to the human heart. Abraham’s faith flowered in his wait for a son. Joseph’s pathway to greatness was inextricably linked to his years in slavery and prison. The Israelites may never have wanted to leave Egypt unless they had felt the yoke of slavery for long enough. Most of the Bible, in fact, consists of people waiting for God to do something. What are you waiting for? Keep seeking and don’t give up. Let God shape your heart in the process.
Pray to God for what you want to see him do in your life and that of others.
Read James 5:7-12
