Abide || August 15
The Patience of God
The world will spend all week telling you who you need to become. Every Saturday morning, we’ll remember who you already are in Christ. Friends, welcome back to Abide.
I have a confession: I am not particularly patient with myself. Honestly, I am not patient with myself at all.
I would like to think that I am a fairly patient person in general, but when it comes to my own growth, I apparently have very little tolerance for the process. I can look back at something I struggled with six months ago, realize I am still struggling with it, and immediately think, Really? We are still doing this? As though sanctification were supposed to be a twelve-week program with a clearly defined graduation date.
Wouldn't it be nice if spiritual growth worked that way? You identify the issue, pray about it, read the right books, have a meaningful conversation with Jesus, and then—congratulations!—that particular area of your life is now permanently resolved. You can check it off the list and move on to the next thing. Diploma earned. Certificate granted.
Unfortunately, that does not appear to be how God designed sanctification. And I think one of the reasons we become so frustrated with ourselves is because we forget how patient God is with us.
Psalm 103 says, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13–14, NIV).
I love that last phrase: He remembers that we are dust.
God is not confused by our humanity. He is not surprised that we are weak. He is not shocked when we need to learn the same lesson more than once. He is not standing over us with an increasingly impatient expression because we have not yet become the person we think we should be.
He knows how we are formed. He knows exactly what He made us to be. He knows our weaknesses, our tendencies, our fears, our limitations, and the ways we are still being shaped. He knows where we are going to struggle before we ever encounter the struggle. And somehow, knowing all of that, He is still patient with us.
That does not mean God is indifferent toward our sin.
This is where I think we sometimes misunderstand patience. We can assume that if God is patient with us, He must not care very much about our obedience. But Scripture shows us a very different picture. God's patience is not the absence of holiness or correction. His patience is the expression of His mercy as He patiently leads us toward holiness.
Paul says in Romans 2:4 that “God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” (NIV).
His kindness leads us. His patience leads us. His correction leads us.
God is not standing at the finish line yelling, “Hurry up!”
He is walking with us toward it.
There is a particular kind of discouragement that comes when we become convinced that we should be farther along than we are. We look at our lives and think, I should have figured this out by now. I should trust God more by now. I should be less anxious by now. I should be more disciplined by now. I should be more mature by now.
And maybe sometimes that frustration is actually pride disguised by a very spiritual outfit.
We don't just want to grow. We want to have already grown. We don't just want to become more like Jesus. We want to be able to look back at our lives and see a nice, orderly progression of improvement. We want the testimony without quite as much of the process.
But God is not nearly as concerned with giving us an impressive timeline as He is with making us like Christ.
Paul says in Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (NIV).
Notice what Paul does not say. He does not say, He who began a good work in you expects you to finish it yourself. He does not say, He who began a good work in you will be disappointed if you are not done by Thursday.
He says God will carry it on to completion. The God who started the work is committed to finishing it - That is both comforting and humbling.
Because sometimes I want God to make me better without making me dependent. I want to be more patient, but I would prefer not to have to practice patience. I want to trust God more, but I would prefer not to find myself in circumstances where I have no choice but to trust Him. I want to become more humble, but I would appreciate it if He could accomplish that without putting me in situations where my pride gets exposed.
Unfortunately, God seems to be less interested in my convenience than my character. And He is patient enough to keep working.
Lamentations 3:22–23 says, “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (NIV).
Every morning.
Not just the mornings when we got everything right yesterday. Not just the mornings when we had a great quiet time, responded graciously, trusted God perfectly, and didn't mentally rehearse the argument we had with someone for the next six hours.
Every morning.
His compassions are new. God's patience is not dependent on us having a particularly impressive track record. His mercy meets us again and again because His character does not change.
And this is where abiding becomes so important.
If I believe that God is constantly waiting for me to become impressive enough to please Him, then I will spend my entire Christian life striving. I will turn prayer into performance. I will turn Bible reading into a spiritual report card. I will turn obedience into a transaction. I will constantly evaluate whether I am doing “well enough” with God.
But if I understand that I am already His, that Christ has secured my standing before God, and that He is patiently forming me into the likeness of Christ, then I can actually abide.
I can remain. I can repent without running away. I can receive correction without collapsing into shame. I can admit that I am not where I want to be without deciding that God must be finished with me.
There is a difference between conviction and condemnation.
Conviction says, This needs to change.
Condemnation says, You will never change.
Conviction draws us toward God.
Condemnation makes us want to hide from Him.
And Romans 8:1 reminds us, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (NIV).
God's patience does not mean He leaves us exactly as we are. It means He loves us enough to stay with us while He changes us.
That can be a much slower process than I would prefer. But slow does not mean God is absent. Perhaps the fact that we are still being formed is evidence that He is still at work.
Psalm 103 goes on to say that the Lord is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8, NIV). He is slow to anger because His character is merciful. He does not treat us according to the full weight of what our sins deserve. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.
And if God is this patient with us, maybe we need to learn to extend some of that patience toward ourselves. Not so that we can excuse sin. Not so that we can become comfortable with disobedience. Not so that we can stop growing.
But so that we can stop acting as though God's work in us is somehow failing because it is taking longer than we expected.
Maybe you are still learning to trust God. Maybe you are still learning how to receive His love without trying to earn it. Maybe you are still wrestling with the same insecurity, the same fear, the same tendency toward control, the same habit of comparison, the same struggle to surrender what you desperately want to manage yourself. Maybe you thought you would be past it by now.
Friend, God knows. He is not surprised. He has not abandoned you. And He is not in a hurry with you. The God who began the work is still doing the work.
So this week, instead of asking, “Why am I not farther along?” ask a different question: “Where is God faithfully forming me right now?”
Look for the small evidence of His work.
Maybe you are responding differently than you would have a year ago. Maybe you notice sin more quickly. Maybe you are repenting sooner. Maybe you are learning to pause before reacting. Maybe you are beginning to trust God in an area where you once tried to control everything. Maybe you are simply becoming more aware of your need for Him. That counts!
Growth does not always feel like growth while you are in it. Sometimes it looks like a quiet decision nobody else sees. Sometimes it looks like repentance. Sometimes it looks like waiting. Sometimes it looks like realizing that the thing you used to defend, you now want God to change.
God is patient with the process because He knows where He is taking you.
And maybe that is what it means to abide here. To remain with Jesus long enough to let Him finish what He started. Not frantically trying to become someone God will finally love. Not measuring our spiritual lives against everyone else's timeline. Not assuming that because we are still growing, we must somehow be failing.
Just staying close to the One who is faithful enough to finish what He began.
The world may be in a hurry to tell you who you need to become. God is not. He already knows who you are becoming. And He is patient enough to get you there.
This Week's Reflection
This week, pay attention to the places where you are becoming impatient with your own growth.
When you catch yourself thinking, I should be farther along by now, pause.
Ask yourself: Am I frustrated because God is actually calling me to obedience, or because I am frustrated that I am not already finished?
Those are two very different things.
Spend some time with Psalm 103:8–14 and Philippians 1:6 this week. Thank God for the ways He has already changed you, even if there is still plenty of work left to do. Ask Him to show you where He is patiently forming you right now.
And when you inevitably discover another area where you still have some growing to do, remember this: You are not a failed project. You are being formed. The God who began the work has not changed His mind about finishing it.
Keep walking with Jesus, friends.
bytaylormcgee
