Am I Waiting Patiently — Or Seeking My Own Solution?

Posted on 03/31/2013 by goodnewsfromadistantland — Leave a comment

Waiting patiently on Yahuwah Elohim [the Hebrew name for the LORD God], can sometimes be a time of fretting, worry, and biting our fingernails. All of us find it difficult to wait. But waiting, especially a long wait, is usually a time of testing — testing our patience, testing our trust in God, testing our trust in His written Word, and testing our commitment to Him.

However, over and over, the Scriptures urge us to wait on Yahuwah [the LORD] — wait for His timing, His intervention, His solution.

Waiting on Yahuwah is often a significant lesson in learning patience.

Patience is one of the necessary steps in our growth in the knowledge of our Master Yahushua Messiah [the Hebrew name for Jesus Christ]:

Give all diligence to add to your faith virtue;
add to virtue knowledge;
add to knowledge temperance [self-control];
add to temperance patience;
add to patience godliness;
add to godliness brotherly kindness;
and add to brotherly kindness charity [love].
For if these things be in you, and abound,
they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Master Yahushua Messiah [the Lord Jesus Christ]. (2Peter 1:5-8)

Steps ladder As the above passage shows, our Heavenly Father desires that we would grow in our knowledge of His Son, the Messiah. The above verses show us that our growth is like climbing a spiritual ladder.

Just as each rung of a ladder must be reached before climbing to the next rung, in the same way, we must have patience in order to grow up into the knowledge of our Saviour. So, learning to wait patiently is a necessary and important issue.

Are we aware of this important issue? — that we have a need for learning to wait patiently?

What are some symptoms that tell us we have need of more patience?

If we find ourselves anxiously yearning for an answer to a problem, and yet, we feel stuck in a place of insurmountable passage, then that is a time when we have need of patience!

Perhaps we have fervently cried out to God. We have looked to Him, acknowledged our need for His salvation in our dilemma, but there seems to be no answer, no solution available for us, even after we have prayed. And now, we are agitated, troubled, fretting, and anxiously pacing a rut in our floor. There seems to be no answer, no solution — even after we have prayed!!

So what do we do now? What can we do?!?

THE ANSWER: Wait patiently.

King David expressed a time of waiting patiently. And then, after waiting, the answer came and he received Father’s reward.

If we will begin to wait patiently on God, we will also discover Father’s reward — the reward of receiving Father’s hope, comfort, and HIS solution:

I waited patiently for Yahuwah [the LORD]; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. (Psalms 40:1)

I will admit though. I do not like to hear the words — “Wait Patiently!”

Waiting patiently is not easy!! Yet waiting patiently is often very necessary!

Patiently waiting is a sign of our maturity. It is also part of our Heavenly Father’s ways — His way of bringing us to moments when all we can do is WAIT!

Imagine a little child eyeing a dessert that he desperately wants, but his mother insists that he wait until everyone is finished with supper. Just as that little child squirms and frets while he waits, we do the same!

Often we try to work out a remedy — a solution of our own.

We may have said a quick prayer, but then, we begin our efforts to ‘fix’ the problem.

I’m not talking about life-threatening situations where seconds count and swift action is necessary.

What I’m addressing is problems that commonly arise in our lives, dilemmas that can become tangled and unpleasant predicaments.

Problems and Tangled Predicaments

Such problems need our prayers! Prayer is certainly the first step when facing problems! But what is the next step?

Pray more!!

And then, begin to wait with listening ears for Yahuwah’s direction!

Why is this the next step? Because Yahuwah says it is GOOD for us to wait:

Yahuwah [the LORD] is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahuwah [the LORD]. (Lamentations 3:25-26)

Blessed are all they that wait for Him [Yahuwah]. (Isaiah 30:18b)

Yahuwah tells us that it is good for us to wait for Him — waiting for His rescue, His intervention, His deliverance, and His solution. Those who wait for Him are blessed, and they are growing up!

The above passage in Lamentations teaches us that waiting on Yahuwah is a form of seeking Him.

When we are seeking Him, we are looking to Him by prayer, re-dedicating our commitment to Him, and waiting for His divine intervention. We are bowing down to accept His solution, learning to wait patiently for His direction.

This ‘learning-to-wait’ process cultivates and nurtures this most-precious Fruit of the Spirit — Patience!

Our Own Solution

Often it happens however, that when we should be learning patience, we instead become impatient!

We angry bear attempt to work out our own solution rather than waiting on Yahuwah’s solution. Often we become very angry instead of being patient!

The problem with working out our own solution, our own deliverance, is that frequently, an additional problem arises. As the prophet Amos describes, when we try to remedy a lion of a problem, then we find ourselves running into a bear of a problem (Amos 5:19).

I have learned that having a lion of a problem requires every bit of teeth-clenching, nail-biting energy I have to wait patiently on Yahuwah’s answer! I sure do not need a bear of a problem in addition!

But alas — I have encountered my share of bears!

Yet, by Father’s mercy and grace, little by little, I’m starting to learn that if I will ask His help to BE patient, I can begin to see the benefits and the blessings of patiently waiting.

Waiting and listening for Father’s direction will teach us the benefits of not being hasty!!

Sadly, it is being hasty that brings us more trouble. Being hasty often ends with exposing our own pride, anger, and foolishness:

He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalts folly. (Proverbs 14:29)

Do you see a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him. (Proverbs 29:20)

Be not hasty in your spirit to be angry: for anger rests in the bosom of fools. (Ecclesiastes 7:9)

My beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God. (James 1:19,20)

Learning to be patient in spirit rather than being hasty in spirit is worth all our efforts!

As the above verses show us, if any benefit comes from waiting patiently, at the very least, we will avoid appearing as a fool.

Growing in Maturity

Becoming patient is one way in which we grow in wisdom, in maturity, and in the knowledge of God’s will. So what are some indications that we are beginning to learn the blessings of waiting patiently?

This may be obvious for some, but the first step of maturing in the knowledge of Yahushua Messiah is to have a determined, unshakable conviction and commitment to Yahuwah’s written WORD — that His Word is our final authority in all matters!

When we base everything we do, and believe, on the Scriptures [the Bible], then we are on the right path to finding peace, blessings, and the wonderful attribute of patience!

When we have this conviction, we will begin to be afraid to dis-honour Yahuwah. We will not want to violate His Word! Instead we will desire to be obedient to such verses as:

“A soft answer turns away wrath” (Prov 15:1)
“He that is slow to anger appeases strife” (Prov 15:18)
“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty” (Prov 16:32)
“The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit” (Ecc 7:8)
“Love endures all things” (1Cor 13:7)
“Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Yahushua Messiah” (2Tim 2:3)
“Endure chastening, for it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12: 7,11)

Taking heed to these verses will encourage us to be:

swift to hear,
slow to speak, and
slow to wrath (James 1:19).

If we are diligent and faithful [by Yahuwah’s enabling grace of course], to follow James’ advice, then patience will result.

However, as a child of the Most High, we must always be prepared for the testings of our faith.

S-L-O-W To SPEAK

Why would we be tested over our patience?

Because a person who is truly ‘swift to hear‘ and ‘slow to speak‘ is generally not popular in the world’s eyes.

Surely you have observed that many people are naturally hasty of spirit. Sadly, many people are slow to HEAR! Sadly, all of us have experience at being quick to speak, and quick to wrath [anger]!

But if we are seeking to learn to be swift to hear and slow to speak, then be prepared for ridicule and scorn. Yet our Heavenly Father gives abundant comfort and assurance to those who are earnestly seeking to walk in His ways.

Our goal is to learn of Him who is meek and lowly. Our quiet peacefulness is a good indicator of our growth in wisdom, grace, and the knowledge of our Saviour, Messiah Yahushua (Matthew 11:29; 2Peter 3:18).

Yes, a big indication that we are growing in wisdom and acquiring a patient spirit is our lack of much talking, and our lack of anger.

Rather than rising up with retaliation and contention, we seek to maintain a tight hold on our tongue, remaining quiet. If we are seeking to learn patience, then we will be quick to raise up a prayer for Yahuwah’s help.

In My Distress, I Cried Unto Yahuwah

Contention and strife is a good indication that we are not being patient, but instead are seeking to find our own solution!

But if we are learning to wait patiently, walking in Father’s ways, we will resist the inclination to contend or strive. Instead, we will trust the abundance of Yahuwah’s encouragement to cry out to Him, seeking His intervention on our behalf:

Yahuwah will hear when I call unto Him (Psalms 4:3b).
Yahuwah has attended to the voice of my prayer (Psalms 66:19).
I cried unto Yahuwah and He has healed me (Psalms 30:2).
They cried unto Yahuwah and were delivered (Psalms 22:5).
They cried unto Yahuwah in their trouble, and He delivered them (Psalm 107:6).
When I cried, You answered me, and strengthened me with strength in my soul (Psalms 138:3).
In my distress I cried unto Yahuwah, and He heard me (Psalms 120:1).

These are just a few verses showing us that crying out unto Yahuwah has great promises!!

Crying out to Father will eventually result in seeing His wonderful divine intervention on our behalf!!

“Let us wait patiently for the Lord, and leave to His own wisdom the time and manner wherein He will appear and intervene for us.” — John Wesley

Summary

Father wants to show Himself strong on our behalf (2Chronicles 16:9), but we must surrender our pride and arrogance, and acknowledge our need for Him!

Sometimes Father will reveal His solution for our problems directly to us [and even quickly at times], and thereby we can walk in His guidance. But if we don’t cry out to Him, and then wait patiently for His direction, we could well find ourselves running into a bigger problem — a bear of a problem.

Perhaps some of us are facing such dilemmas as a cantankerous supervisor, or a cranky family member, or an overwhelming debt, or a distressing habit or a medical condition, or some other stressful obstacle. Instead of stewing and fretting over our options by seeking out our own solution to the problem, let us begin to cry out to the King of the Universe, and acknowledge our need for Yahuwah Elohim’s solution.

If we will tell Father exactly what the problem is [no matter the size], and continually cry out to Him for His help, then by His grace, let us grit our teeth with fortitude and wait patiently for His solution!

May it be that we will seek Father for His grace to Wait Patiently — and not seek our own solution!

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