Every parent and grandparent have heard the timeless phrase from the back seat of a car from an anxious child… are we there yet?
It may be that you have yourself uttered those words traveling to an eagerly anticipated destination.
As GK Chesterton remarked, “One of the great disadvantages of hurry is that it takes such a long time.” It sure does!
In our walk with the Lord however, it is very important that we patiently wait on him for his timing is always perfect.
The Bible is filled with stories of men and women who have failed miserably in their faith. You can believe that God, not man inspired the Bible. If man would have written it, he would have no doubt glossed over his faults, but when God paints a picture of us, he paints us warts and all!
Commenting on our need for the virtue of patience, M.H. Lount writes, “God’s best gifts come slowly. We could not use them if they did not. Many a man, called of God to…a work in which he is pouring out his life, is convinced that the Lord means to bring his efforts to a successful conclusion. Nevertheless, even such a confident worker grows discouraged at times and worries because results do not come as rapidly as he would desire. But growth and strength in waiting are results often greater than the end so impatiently longed for.”
We often grow strongest in our faith as we endure hardships and wait on the Lord.
Paul had time to realize this as he lay in prison.
Moses must have asked, ‘Why?’ many times during the delays in Midian and in the wilderness.
Jesus Himself experienced the discipline of delay in His silent years before His great public ministry began.”
God wants us to see results as we work for Him, but His first concern is our growth. That’s why He often withholds success until we have learned patience.
The Lord teaches us this needed lesson through the blessed discipline of delay.
Oswald Chambers wrote: “Patience is more than endurance. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says – ‘I cannot stand anymore.’ – God does not heed. He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight… then He lets fly. – Trust yourself in God’s hands. For what have you need of patience just now? Maintain your relationship to Jesus Christ by the patience of faith.”
Job wrote: “Though He slay me, yet will I wait for Him.” (Job 13:15.)… You cannot see Him just now, you cannot understand what He is doing, but you know Him… Faith is the heroic effort of your life; fling yourself in reckless confidence on God.”
As the Olympic games are on the minds of many, there is a verse in Hebrews 12:1 that tells us to “run with endurance” the race set before us.
George Matheson wrote, “We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet there is a patience that I believe to be harder — the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: it is the power to work under stress; to have a great weight at your heart and still run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily tasks. It is a Christ-like thing! The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in the sickbed but in the street.”
To wait is hard, to do it with “good courage” is harder!
God does a strong work in us as we wait on him!
As G. Campbell Morgan observed, “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”
An old Scottish man had a sign over the door of his house for his son to gaze upon as he left for the day. It said, “Do not say anything you don’t want to be saying when Jesus comes back. Do not do anything you don’t want to be doing when Jesus comes back. And do not go anywhere you don’t want to be found when Jesus comes back.”
Are we there yet? No but I want to be found ready when we get there don’t you?

Tim Throckmorton is the national director of Family Resource Council’s Community Impact Teams.