How do you handle waiting? Do you wait patiently? Or are you impatient, continually complaining about the requirement to wait? Have you been captured by the instant access to information on the internet and overnight shipping, now wanting everything immediately?
Our culture has become impatient. We have become used to getting answers immediately. It simply takes a quick Google search, and we have our answer. We can order an item on Amazon and receive it within a day or two. Waiting to be served at a restaurant tries our patience. We want to be served now.
With the shortages of personnel at many businesses now, some of us are having to learn patience. We are learning to do a little planning that accounts for waiting. It is causing us to adjust to a new way of planning (or going back an old way that few of us remember).
Waiting is not always a bad thing. It can provide us time to think or think more thoroughly about our decisions. Knowing we will need to wait causes us to take a pause to make the best decision rather than rashly making a choice in the belief we can change it and our direction if we do not like the outcome.
The Apostle’s had to wait. Jesus told them to wait a few days for the Holy Spirit to baptize them. I’m not sure they fully understood what Jesus meant, though they would experience it in a few days. There might have been a lot of questioning and discussion about what and how it would happen. But what they experienced turned out for the best. After all, when that baptism came, three thousand were converted on that day after hearing Peter’s amazing sermon.
I pray we all exercise a little patience. I pray we patiently wait for God’s blessing. I pray each of us are patient with one another and spend a little time in prayer and planning as we follow the path God as prepared for us. Be patient. Learn patience. Practice patience. Learn to plan. Train yourself to think before acting. Trust God has the best in mind for you.
Acts 1:4-5 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Marty Pressey 