Cultivate Patience

This is the first eight verses of Ecclesiastes, chapter three.

“There is an appointed time for everything. Notice that, everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. And then there’s this long list. ‘A time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.’”

Isn’t that an example of patience? When you just have to say, “I’ve got to recognize this thing is lost. It’s gone.”

You see, there’s, I think there, if I remember rightly, there are eighteen opposites there. None of them is always right, and none of them is always wrong. Each is right at the right time and wrong at the wrong time. And what is required to achieve the right timing? One essential requirement is patience, being willing to wait. Then you see the opposite of patience, impatience, leads to something which is very harmful, emotionally, mentally, physically. Perhaps one of the greatest causes of sickness of all kinds today, it’s fretting.

This is what David says in Psalm 37, verses seven through nine:

“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.”

It would be worthwhile counting sometime how many times David talks about waiting for the Lord. I believe that’s one of the great secrets of his strength.

“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.”

Listen, if you’re impatient, you cannot rest.

“Fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.”

You remember God’s patience causes Him not to intervene immediately against the wicked, but to wait for the right time.

“Cease from anger and forsake wrath; fret not yourself; it leads only to evil doing. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait for the Lord—”

Notice the emphasis on waiting again.

“Those who wait for the Lord—they will inherit the land.”

See, that’s the basis of patience, that if we wait, we’ll inherit. But if we’re hasty, we may miss our inheritance.

There’s a destructive sequence that occurs in the lives of most of us, and I have to tell you, I’ve learned this from personal experience. It goes this way: impatience leads to irritability, which leads to anger. And very often, especially if we’re trying to be good Christians, we suppress that anger. But I’m not sure that in the long run, suppressed anger doesn’t do more harm than expressed anger. And it’s expressed later in hastiness. Let me say that again. Let me give you that sequence: impatience, irritability, anger, frequently suppressed, and it issues in hastiness.

Listen to these words from Proverbs, which has got a lot to say about this. Proverbs 19:2:

“Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, and he who makes haste with his feet errs.”

See, the implication is that to acquire knowledge, you’ve got to be patient. But if you’re hasty with your feet, you’ll take a wrong course. Proverbs 21:5:

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage’ or ‘prosperity,’ but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.”

Isn’t that an amazing statement?

“Everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.”

I’m not a businessman, but I have many acquaintances who are, and I think one sure way to failure in business is to be hasty, to go ahead of your timing and your judgment.

Then again, Proverbs 29 and verse 20:

“Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

When I read those words once, they just, they shocked me. I thought, “The Bible has nothing whatever good to say about a fool.” But it says a man who’s hasty in his words is worse than a fool. He has less hope than a fool.

Brothers and sisters, we have to cultivate patience. If we want to succeed, if we want God’s blessing, if we want our inheritance, we have to cultivate patience.