'Wait-Lifting' for the New Year

Kathy Carlton Willis, God's Grin Gal, always encourages readers to see life through a biblical perspective and not lose their joy in life. In this New Year's UPGRADE, she addresses the topic of patience—when and how to cultivate it.

“We often comment on how good or bad our waiter is at a restaurant, but I’m not earning any good waiter awards these days when it comes to waiting on life stuff,” Kathy says.

Waiting is hard for me (Dawn) too. Patience is definitely a character trait I need to cultivate! Kathy has wise, helpful counsel for all of us.

Kathy continues . . .

Probably the hardest thing for me, and most of you, is the trial of hurry up and wait. Left unchecked, it tests my patience, challenges my contentment, and sours my joy.

If you are in a season not of your own choosing, you might find yourself wishing for something different or more.

Answers or solutions.

In this era of supply chain shortages, there are much more serious shortages going on.

When it comes to waiting, a lack of patience will practically do us in.

Sometimes, we need the delay for God to prepare us for the answer He is customizing for His purpose to come true in our lives.

Our job when we sense silence on the other end of our prayers is simple.

Wait.

And in the wait, we trust.

And in the trust, we grow patience.

And when patience has grown up, it becomes endurance.

Then we’re ready to run the faith marathon designed with us in mind.

Isn’t it curious that the very thing that causes us to feel impatient is an example of God’s patience? We think He’s being quiet, or even absent from our lives because of our situation. The opposite is true—He is forever present with us.

Having God with us is more important than having—well, anything!

When we have that, the weight of the wait is lifted. (The best kind of “wait-lifting.”)

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” (James 1:2–4 NLT)

Patience is only developed during the wait, never in the rush.

What happens when we wait impatiently? Whether we wait with patience or impatience, it takes just as long, but when we’re impatient, we’re miserable.

Let’s trade our impatience for a new coping skill to help reframe our outlook.

How to Develop Your Patience Muscle

Patience is never more needed and never less present than when we are dealing with a time-out or pause. It’s always best to develop patience ahead of time so that muscle memory shows up when you need it.

Here are some tips.

1. Galatians 5 lists patience as a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

That means it’s up to the Holy Spirit to act in patience through us, and it’s up to us to be yielded to the Spirit.

What does it mean to be yielded or surrendered to the Spirit? It involves us being willing to follow His lead instead of the selfish desires that contradict Scripture.

2. Don’t expect your circumstances to change.

Patience is pumped up just like working a muscle during weightlifting—when it is tested.

3. Know that all human beings struggle with impatience, and only a few learn to be patient during difficult times.

It’s easier to get frustrated than to have faith, and our go-to tends to be in crisis mode rather than choosing to be in Christ.

4. Patience needs to be stored up ahead of time for when you need it, and it gets depleted easily.

Being in God’s Word and talking with Him in the good times banks spiritual fruit for you to have available during the bad times.

5. If you find yourself lacking patience, look through God’s eyes of grace toward the situation or person frustrating you.

This will allow you to put up with much more.

6. Sometimes the person you need to have patience toward is yourself.

Reduce your unrealistic expectations. Allow more do-overs. Confess your flaws to God and ask Him to transform your life.

7. When you realize that your purpose in life is so much bigger than this current circumstance, your ability to be more patient will flourish.

Strive to look at the big picture—the kingdom picture.

8. Patience helps you trust God more.

Trusting God helps you build more patience. They go together. When you have something to hang your hope on, you can wait with patience for all the details to be worked out according to God’s purpose.

9. If you are a Christ follower, you are a temple of God, and conduit for the Spirit to flow through you.

Patience moves unhindered through open conduit but is restricted when that conduit is plugged with pride and self.

10. When you choose to be impatient, you willfully refuse God’s equipment to help you cope with your current situation.

Patience is an act of obedience—evidence of a yielded, Spirit-filled life.

11. Practicing patience is not the same thing as stagnating.

It doesn’t mean you are complacent or compromising. It means you are content in the wait but eager with hope for the next God-thing. It’s not passive.

Patience is active—acting on God’s Word to stand your ground until He moves you on.

12. Patience gives you time to grow a more intimate relationship with the Father.

What New Year’s goal will you set to strengthen your patience muscle?

Kathy Carlton Willis is God’s Grin Gal. She writes and speaks with a balance of funny and faith—whimsy and wisdom. Over a thousand of Kathy’s articles have been published and she has several books in her Grin Gal brand. Today’s Upgrade with Dawn is inspired by Kathy’s latest book, Your Life on Hold: Don’t Hate the Wait. Consider joining one of Kathy’s groups for 2023. More information at www.kathycarltonwillis.com.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Andrea Piacquadio at Pexels.

Road Work Ahead — Expect Delays!

Dianne Barker's clever use of everyday symbols and circumstances offer lessons for our Christian journey. In this Christian Living UPGRADE, she writes about the tough time so many of us have with waiting.

"'Road work ahead, expect delays.' That’s what the construction sign said. "In other words, prepare to wait," Dianne said.

Oh, how I (Dawn) hate to wait. I always think it's such a waste of time. But Dianne encourages us to get a fresh perspective on delays.

Dianne continues . . . 

The sign provided appropriate advice for the road of life.

The problem with most of us is that we aren’t prepared to wait. We’re geared for full speed ahead.

Waiting is unplanned and unwanted because it often leads to an unexpected and undesirable detour. Reaching the destination has top priority so waiting is never welcome.

I don’t love waiting, yet waiting consumes a large part of life. I should be getting used to it, but it always catches me by surprise.

I never include interruption and delay in my daily plans.

This very moment may find you in an interruption and waiting phase.

• Waiting for biopsy results.
• Waiting for a prodigal child to return.
• Waiting for a family conflict to be resolved.
• Waiting for a terrible hurt to heal.

Sometimes we wait with sweet anticipation.

• Waiting for the husband of our dreams.
• Waiting for a child to be born.
• Waiting for a promised promotion at work.
• Waiting for a spectacular family vacation.

Other times we wait with paralyzing dread.

Once, in such a place, I heard a soft whisper in my spirit:

“You aren’t waiting on a person or a circumstance. You are waiting on God.”

That truth changed my perspective.

Delay is annoying, and my typical response is grumbling—which never has a favorable impact on my situation.

Knowing God holds my life in His hands and that I’m waiting on Him, I only need to surrender my fretful spirit and confirm my trust in His wisdom.

Perhaps God is also waiting—waiting for us to trust Him fully, confident that delay is always for His greater purpose.

Could it be designed to reveal our devotion?

“…The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him” (Deuteronomy 13:3b-4 NIV).

I'm wondering if God’s purpose in our waiting might also be to teach us to rest.

Psalm 37 gives a simple strategy for times of waiting.

“Trust in the Lord… delight yourself in the Lord… commit your way to the Lord… be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”

What an exciting possibility!

To be still—to rest—and wait patiently, no matter what. If we rest today, we rest in our present circumstances.

How do we get to that place of resting and waiting patiently?

Here are THREE CHOICES to help us use our time productively in the waiting-arena.

1. THANK God, knowing he is using delay to shape us as His instrument.

2. PRAISE God, knowing he is setting the stage to display His power.

3. HONOR God, knowing we can trust His promises.

Our world has spent the last year on pause, waiting for the virus to finish its deadly mission, waiting for restrictions to be lifted, waiting to reunite with distant family members.

Waiting during COVID-19 has spawned discouragement and loneliness.

The challenges of this strange interruption—this unplanned waiting—threatened to drain our joy and hope.

Here’s truth: waiting doesn’t mean inactivity.

Trusting is active. Praying is active.

Begin with this:

"Lord, I surrender this to you. It’s yours. Whatever you do is okay with me. I will praise you because of your righteousness, not my circumstances. Let me hear your voice behind me saying, this is the way, walk in it. My soul waits for you and in your word I will hope."

Use your season of waiting to rehearse promises that slip by unnoticed in the hectic pace of normal life.

• Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know (Jeremiah 33:3).
• Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20).
• And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

As you continue the journey, keep this in mind — God is working on the road ahead. Expect delays but proceed with expectation.

Now then, stand and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! (1 Samuel 12:16).

Who knows what may happen when we wait and trust?

David, the shepherd king, wrote:

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord (Psalm 27:14).

Will you dare to believe you are not waiting on a person or a circumstance but on God?

Dianne Barker is a speaker, radio host, and author of 11 books, including the best-selling Twice Pardoned and award-winning I Don’t Chase the Garbage Truck Down the Street in My Bathrobe Anymore! Organizing for the Maximum Life. She’s a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Christian Authors Network, and Word Weavers International and a speaker for Stonecroft Ministries. Visit www.diannebarker.com.

Graphic - East Rock Hill Township (Penn.) road sign.