Hanging In There Through Patience Series

She had just passed her one hundredth birthday. She had a letter form the President of the U. S. congratulating her. Her pastor went to visit her in a nursing home. She was blind and could not see. She was lame and could not walk. In fact she could not leave her room except for emergencies. She took her meals in her room. Her whole life existed in that room.

As they talked she said, “Pastor, I am the oldest member in your church. But I am ready to go to the Father’s house above.” Her pastor understood her desire. But, then, with a twinkle in her eye and with a lift in her voice she said, “But, I guess God is not through teaching me patience yet.”

He stood there dumbfounded. He was not yet forty. Here is a woman, 100 years old, and she is still learning what patience is all about.

The American prayer is, “Lord give me patience; and give it to me right now!” We have difficulty waiting. Wouldn’t you rather do just about anything than wait? Some of us would rather do the wrong thing than wait. Yet, waiting is the rule, not the exception. The open door is the exception.

The open door with the green light so you can rush through it and go on your way is the exception. But the red light and the closed door ... that is the way life is most of the time.

God answers prayers in three ways. Sometimes God says YES to our prayer. We like that. I heard of a man who once said he had never prayed except God had said yes. I thought he must not have prayed much. Sometimes God says yes.

• We like yes answers.

• We like to get our way.

• We like to get what we want.

Sometimes God says NO. And I don’t think we like to hear it from God any more than we do from anyone else. We know what we want. We think we know what we need and when God says NO we fret.

But, sometimes God says WAIT. He doesn’t say yes, He doesn’t say no, He says wait.

But we don’t like to wait. We are not a society accustomed to waiting. There was a time in our society we were more rural. We were agriculturally inclined. We understood what it meant to wait. We planted and then we waited for a harvest. But we don’t live in that kind of world today. We live in an instant world, when everything is supposed to be done quickly and automatically at the push of a button. I don’t think we need a lengthy teaching on waiting. I think we need a long practice time.

Some of us are getting it. One piece of advice I received when I was coming to this church was to have patience. I don’t know how you have done but the Lord has taught me some patience in dealing with you so far. Some of you are frustrated that I have moved too slowly. Some of you are frustrated that I have moved to fast. If anyone feels that I have done just right, I would be grateful if you would identify yourself after the service tonight. We need some practice and we have been getting some and I know that it works both ways.

Psalm 62 is a passage that speaks about waiting on God. And patience is going to come as we learn to wait on God, only. Patience from any other source is not going to be the kind of patience you desire or need. We need the kind of patience that comes from waiting on the Lord.

“My soul waits in silence for God only.” The literal Hebrew translation there is “only for God.” In silence does my soul wait, only for God. In silence does my soul wait. The word silence comes from the Hebrew word meaning, “to whisper, softly.” The idea is of whispering to someone we love. The word goes just to them and doesn’t go to anyone else. So when we wait on the Lord we are whispering secrets to God and He to us. And it is in this context we learn patience.

The word “only” appears several times in this Psalm. When you get a chance, count them, look at them. For David, there was no one else but the Lord. What did he say?

Wait for God to direct your steps.

Wait for God to direct your steps. What does vs. 1 say? “My soul waits in silence for God only.” Don’t run ahead of God. Wait. Red lights mean wait. But we don’t like red lights. We don’t like traffic tie ups. And the first chance we get, we make a break and turn down a side road and back onto the freeway and away we go again.