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This story is told of two boys who were waiting for breakfast one morning. As their mother was preparing some pancakes, the boys began to argue loudly over who would get the first pancake.

Their mother seeing an opportunity to teach a lesson, said, “If Jesus were sitting here, he would say, ‘Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’”

The older of the two boys turned to the younger and said, “OK, I’ll let you be Jesus this morning.”

We stink at being patient and waiting. We don’t like to wait in traffic. We don’t like to wait in lines at the store. We go to fast food restaurants, because we don’t want to wait for the food to be prepared. We don’t want to wait for our next raise or until we save, so we just charge it.

We are a people who are accustomed to instant gratification. We don’t like waiting.

Sadly, more than we aren’t patient with traffic, food, store lines, or work items, we, at times, are even more impatient with our faith.

We pray for items then take them back up to solve them on our own. We ask for Gods guidance but when we don’t get the response quickly enough or the response we desire we say “God hasn’t heard me,” or “God didn’t answer,” or “I don’t know what’s taking so long.”

Have you not heard the great Garth Brooks tell that “some of Gods greatest gifts are unanswered prayers?” Maybe God told you “not right now.” Maybe God has something better planned for you when your hands are emptied. Maybe, just maybe, the problem has never been that God doesn’t answer or doesn’t answer as we wish. Maybe, just maybe, the problem is we aren’t patient enough to wait.

Alan Ahlgrim said, “The only thing worse than waiting on God is wishing you had.”

The Psalmist tells us to, “Be still,” in Psalm 46:10. Isaiah 40:31 says that “those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.” And Psalm 27:14 says “Wait for the Lord! Be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord!”

You know, maybe you haven’t been waiting on God, but He has been patiently waiting for you. Stop holding out or waiting for life to get easy before you run to God and grow in Him. When we trust in God and wait on Him, we will not be disappointed. God is right here even while you’re waiting.

“Lord, I want for my life and for the life of my family only what You want. Nothing more. Nothing less. Lead us to be patient even while we wait. In Jesus’s name, amen.”