PATIENCE

I always marvel when I see how patience is gradually fizzling out in our world today. We want everything ‘sharp-sharp’ even answers to our prayers and the truth is you cannot put God under undue pressure, He will not bulge because Ecclesiastes 3:11 says: He makes everything beautiful in His own time (note not our time).

I love Habakkuk 2:1, I will climb up to my watch tower and stand at my guard-post. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how He will answer my complaint.

Did we notice the word ‘wait’? Being patient involves waiting. The truth is waiting may not be easy but that is the only option to get what we need not what we want.

Let us consider the story of Ruth. Ruth had it really rough losing her father-in-law, husband and brother-in-law in quick succession. It was a very trying time for her. When her mother-in-law, Naomi decided to return to her home town, Ruth and her sister-in-law followed her. Along the way and after much persuasion from Naomi, Orpah turned back from following Naomi. Ruth was patient and decided that come what may, I will wait….

After Ruth 1:14 – And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi, Orpah’s name was never mentioned again.

Another side to patience aside waiting is following instructions, Ruth followed Naomi’s instructions to the letter when she decided to go out to look for what they will eat. Whatever Naomi told Ruth to do, she will obey and do just that.

Let us look at Ruth 3:1-6
One day Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, it’s time that I found a permanent home for you, so that you will be provided for. Boaz is a close relative of ours, and he’s been very kind letting you gather grain with his young women. Tonight he will be winnowing barley at the threshing floor. Now do as I tell you – take a bath and put on perfume and dress in your nicest clothes. Then go to the threshing floor, but don’t let Boaz see you until he has finished eating and drinking. Be sure to notice where he lies down; then go and uncover his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do.” I will do everything you say, “Ruth replied. So she went down to the threshing floor that night and followed the instructions of her mother-in-law.

Before long, Ruth’s patience paid off in Ruth 4:13 – So Boaz took Ruth into his home, and she became his wife. When he slept with her, the Lord enabled her to become pregnant, and give birth to a son.

The truth is patience always pays off at the long run.

I don’t know that thing you have believed God for ever since 2013 began and it seems God is really slow and your patience is running out, I want to encourage you this morning to top-up your patience because He always makes everything beautiful in His own time. It might seem slow, the wait might seem long, the instructions may seem difficult but it always worth is at the end of the day. Just like a pregnant woman, who knows that she has to carry the baby for 9 months in her womb, and then she gets to the 5th month and says she wants the baby out at that moment, your guess is as good as mine because what she will get will not be a good sight but if she tells herself to enjoy the wait and obey the instructions, at the end of 9 months, she will be glad and excited at the result because she was patient enough.

Dear friend, please don’t throw in the towel yet, it might seem rough now, weeping might have endured all through the past months but I am very sure that joy is coming soonest for you, there is a ray of light at the end of that tunnel.
Hold on, embrace patience, enjoy the wait, follow the instructions and your testimony is sure.

Shalom! By Onome Oyedokun