Practicing Patience

If patience is a virtue, why are we in such a hurry? When it comes to our faith, this can be really frustrating. In this episode of the Things Above podcast, James Bryan Smith discusses our frequently unmet expectations when it comes to spiritual growth and how we can understand God’s timing in our lives. Because the truth is, slow growth offers us eternal strength. Most of us are in a hurry when it comes to our spiritual growth. Miles Stanford wrote about this in his book, Principles of Spiritual Growth. He says, “It seems that most believers have difficulty in realizing and facing up to the inexorable fact that God does not hurry in his development of our Christian life. God is working for and from eternity! So many feel they are not making progress unless they are swiftly and constantly forging ahead.” If we were to grow rapidly, we might begin to believe it was due to our own strength. However, God wants us to know that, without Him, we have no strength. Some of the greatest characters from the Bible, such as Moses and Paul, waited years for God’s strength to be formed in them before they were able to accomplish great things. In other words, our souls take a great deal of time to mature. Dallas Willard said, “Our souls are massive, and they grow slowly.” When we understand and accept this, we receive the patience we need to trust the process of maturity and growth.