Welcome to Saturday, August 14th!

Today’s episode of The Cross Talk Daily Devotional is titled:

Be Patient For 5 Minutes!

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Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995}

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  "Be Patient For Five Minutes!"

"I have been patient for five minutes!" my granddaughter informed me. While sitting on my lap waiting for her mother to cut her brother's birthday cake, she complained that her mother was so slow. I told her to "Be patient for five minutes!" A few minutes later, she continued with, "You know, it's been much longer than five minutes!"

I laughed. Charlotte didn't think it was funny. She thought I was making fun of her. Actually, I was laughing because it sounds just like us at times. Most of us have very little patience. Why is that? For one thing, we live in the microwave age. Food can be cooked or warmed up in minutes.

Think of what it took to make popcorn years ago. Making popcorn was a big production when I was little. You put the corn popper on the stove, heated it, put in some oil and popcorn, put on the lid, and then turned the crank until all the kernels popped. The whole process took at least ten minutes.

Now, what do we do? We take the popcorn bag out of the plastic wrapper and place it in the microwave. Our biggest decision is whether to put the bag seam up or seam down.

In just a couple of minutes, we're eating popcorn!

How does this affect our spiritual lives?

We fall into the trap of thinking that God does not hear our prayers or understand the matter's urgency. We also equate today's prayer to an answer tomorrow.

Listen to the words of:

Isaiah 40:31 NAS95

Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

As Isaiah wrote these words, the Israelites were facing many decades of sadness and struggle. Judah would gradually fall into great sin over the next decades resulting in the Babylonian Captivity for 70 years.

The Israelites needed to be encouraged. Those who honored the Lord were to live in hope. However, at the moment, they not only wondered but accused God of forgetting them. This verse encouraged them to wait patiently.

The believer who truly places his hope in the Lord will renew his strength, exchange his weaknesses for the Lord's strength.

Sadly, we sometimes lose our patience with God.

That sounds terrible when I say that!

Our lack of patience sometimes shows when we are at the end of our rope and barely hanging on. We wonder why our prayers seemingly go unanswered. We wonder why we don't see His hand at work in our lives.

In Psalm 27, David prays as his enemies surround him. After expressing concern over his situation in:

Psalms 27:9 NAS95

Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!

David concludes in the last verse of the chapter:

Psalms 27:14 NAS95

Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.

Just like I encouraged my granddaughter, God tells us to be patient. Though we sometimes cannot see how God is working out the needs of our lives, He is doing precisely that.

As a child of God, He is Your Heavenly Father and always operates as such.

Let's Pray,

Gracious Heavenly Father,

Help us to trust that You are always working all things out for our good.

May we never doubt Your presence in our lives.

Strengthen our walk with You this day.

In the Name of Jesus,

Amen!