God never moves in a hurry. He takes his time, because God is not bounded by time. He is eternal. Consider the following facts, and then let us consider some great lessons.

•God told Noah to build the ark and he knew it would take 120 years. Genesis 6:3
•God made a promise to Abraham and Sarah, which took 25 years to fulfill.
•God took time in delivering Joseph from slavery, and vindicating him before his brothers and the world.
•God waited 430 years before bringing Israel out of Egypt.
•Consider that when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son – Galatians 4:4.

God does things his way, and in his time. He is eternal, and does what he wishes when his will knows it is perfect and complete! There are two great lessons we need to gather from these points:

We need to be patient until God works out his will in his way. We are the most impatient people in the world. We want things done now, and we want results immediately. But God will not be forced by our impatience. Could this be the reason why God stresses time and again that we need to be patient (see Ecclesiastes 7:8; Romans 12:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:4; 2 Timothy 2:24; and James 5:7-8)? Could this be the reason why many of us get so deep in debt, because we have not learned to wait – to put things off until we can afford to pay for these things?
In many situations we try to force things and get God to hurry up. But God will not be rushed, and he is working a good work in us – if we will be patient and wait for his timing – his way!

Second, we need to be thankful that God is patient with us. We all know we don’t do the things we need to be doing; we sin against God and others daily; we give in to Satan and temptation more than we should. Sometimes, many leave the church because they think Christian living is too hard, and they think that they will never be able to live up to his standards.

Yet God is patient with us. His longsuffering is seen in the lives of the patriarchs, of David, Solomon and others. His longsuffering patience is seen in how much he put up with before he destroyed the world with the flood (Genesis 6-9); before he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, before he sent Israel into captivity. And his longsuffering is so evident in the world today, when we that are trying to be righteous are vexed by the unrighteousness of the world.

Why is God so patient? God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

May we be patient with God as he is working and helping us, and may we thank God daily for his patience with us as he is working in us to help us be what he knows we can be!