If only I could have waited just a second more, I could have avoided the accident. If I had waited just a second longer, I would have avoided all this mess that I find myself in. If I had just took a second to calm down and think, I would have avoided my divorce, I would have avoided loosing my children, my loved ones or I would have avoided going to jail. If I only waited till I was married to have sex, I would not have jeopardized my future and the future of my baby that I would not have had, had I just being patient. These are the kinds of staments we make after realizing that our lack of patience has led us to rush and do things we would not have done ordinarily.
I hear people complaining all the time how God does not answer their prayers and how he is taking too long to act. The good thing about this statement is that, people do acknowledge that God does answer our prayers but, they don’t like the time it takes him to answer. Most of the time, people don’t like the type of answer they get. Sometimes people simply miss God’s answer or ignore it because it is not what they wanted. Example, someone will pray to God for money, instead of money, God provides them with an opportunity to work for the money and they don’t take it.
People simply want God to give them what they want, when they want it and how they want it and if God doesn’t, they turn to evil and ungodly ways to achieve what they want. They simply don’t have the patience to allow God to do his will in their lives. Instead they want to impose their will on God. The root cause of all of this is that we as people we want instant satisfaction. We have an attitude of we want it and we want it now. We have absolutely no sense of patience. What makes it worse is that we envy those that are succeeding in life irrespective of how they are doing it. All we see is that they are succeeding and you also, must succeed and if God is going to take time, well then we will find some other god or evil and ungodly ways to also succeed.
We are no different to our children that we raise. As a parent, if your child of 7 years old wanted you to buy him a Ferrari car, would you buy it for him? Of course not! You would rather let him grow up and be mature first before you can buy him the car and even then, you will only buy him if you beleive that, that is what he needs and he can handle it. Now, if you refuse, would you be happy if your child joins some gang and goes and stills a Ferrari? I don’t think so. Then why do we do the same with God. God is our father and he loves us and knows what we need.
Matthew 6:32 (ESVST)
For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
God knows that we need all of these things. Why is it then that if God does not give us what he knows will not be good to us or when he doesn’t give us what we want when we want it, why is it that we then turn to evil and ungodly ways to get what we want. In the same way that we would not want our children to behave that way, it is also not acceptable to God if we wander into evil and ungodly ways to get what we want instead of relying and trusting in him to provide. God did promises that we must ask and it will be given to us.
Matthew 7:7 (ESVST)
7 “ Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
God says and this is our main message:
Psalms 37:7 (ESVST)
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!