Prayer, Peace and Patience

This post was meant to be published last Thursday. But after I typed the first sentence, “When you pray for patience, God will give you situations to practice patience,” my website went down. That began my “trial” to practice patience. I had recently moved hosting providers for this website (if this website is a house, the hosting provider is the “landlord”). The move was not completed in time before my old “landlord” suspended my account. As a result, I kept seeing suspension notices on my 5 websites. The other websites sometimes worked, but shema-rhema.com consistently showed a suspension notice.

I repeatedly contacted my current “landlord”, explaining that I was still seeing the problem. Each time, they told me everything looked fine on their end. Long story short, it took a lot of back-and-forth. Yet throughout the process, there was a nagging thought in the back of my mind. Maybe I just needed to wait for the “house” to fully complete its move at the backend. New visitors were seeing the correct websites anyway. But I was frustrated that other returning visitors like myself were seeing old, cached information. I was anxious to get everything back in order, and waiting felt unproductive. So I tried to solve the problem instead of sitting still and letting it resolve itself.

I didn’t have the patience. I realised my need for control had made me impatient. I needed to do something to feel in control.

Then I thought about another situation I’m currently facing, one that is also beyond my control. It stretches my patience, as I knew the wait was going to be more than a month. Even though I have received reassurance from Scripture, my impatience has made the waiting full of anxieties. I find myself swinging between faith in God’s promises and anxiety over the outcome. I’ve even prepared myself for disappointment if the answer turns out to be negative. And as the deadline draws nearer with no news, my anxiety rises as I become impatient for an answer.

I also thought about those waiting for a medical diagnosis. I’ve been there myself. I know how excruciating the wait can be. We become anxious while waiting because here we are also confronted with things beyond our control.

In the end, I gave up trying to fix the websites and waited. Ironically, after a short while, the websites worked well by themselves. Then I wondered why I made myself go through all the stress and busyness, which affected my mood and time. I became short-fused with my family, and I lost the time I could have spent with my children. If only I trusted the nudging to let go and follow the Bible’s way to be anxious  — by prayer and petition, and in thanksgiving. This way, I could give up my control to God and trust that He will make all things beautiful in His time. And if there is something we need to do for the situation, He will nudge us to do so.

As I learn to be more patient in this season, Tim Keller’s sermon on patience came up on my YouTube feed. I would like to think that God uses YouTube’s algorithm to bring certain things to our attention. I quote him here, with slight edits for clarity:

“Patience and perseverance are always linked to a kind of inner peace. Patience comes from knowing that, no matter what it looks like on the outside, God is compassionate, and His wise love is at work. There is an inner peace that leads to patience. The definition of patience is gracefulness, graciousness, and steadiness in the face of delayed gratification, delayed hopes, and deep disappointments.”

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NKJV)

Perhaps that is why patience is so difficult. Patience is not merely waiting. It is trusting God while we wait. It requires us to slow down to see God’s invisible hands in our situations. So through prayer, we will have the peace to trust that God is working all things out for our good. And from that peace comes patience. Instead of hurrying to see an answer or hustling to make things happen, we can sit at His feet, be still and trust Him while we wait.

Prayer brings peace, which leads to patience.

What are you waiting for today? I pray you will be able to wait in peace and patience.

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