If you have ever prayed for patience, you probably discovered like I did that instead of feeling more patient, you were surprised to react the opposite. You became painfully aware of your lack of patience. Now and again, I hear people half-jokingly say, “don’t pray for patience.” Trained and pressured by society to expect and even demand immediate solutions, time is not on our side.

Patience is a Person. He gives vision for the long game, He broadens the horizon, He foretells the future. And He waits expectantly, knowing all that He can and will do. He waits for us to be expectant in Him. 

There is a simple solution. Declare God’s Word when “time” drags on. Be still and know Him in the waiting. I pray: “Father, your timing is perfect. Your word will be fulfilled, even if it’s not right now. Even if it seems slow in coming. Even if it’s for a future time. It will take place; it will not be delayed” (see Habakkuk 2:2-3).

Intervention by God seems slow according to our human measurements. In fact, matters can get worse and our prayers don’t seem to help. Habakkuk was confused and disappointed in God’s lack of action. How could Babylon, the worst nation around, be used as the instrument of justice towards the two remaining tribes of Judah? 

Judah had been warned for decades, yet Habakkuk saw destruction and violence. He said, “I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted” (Habakkuk 1:3-4).

Like Habakkuk’s time, we are in a battle and God invites us to join Him. Otherwise, we battle alone and get trampled. Be a light in the darkness. Choose to be unoffendable. Be salt in your world and help preserve truth and justice. Wake up each day and declare: “Father, your word will be fulfilled; it will not be delayed.”