how to wait on God's timing

one of the hardest things to do in your walk with Jesus is wait on God's timing for some reason as Christians it is so hard for us to wait patiently on God's timing when God literally says in Isaiah 60:22 at the right time I the Lord will make it happen for some reason it is so hard for us to trust that and wait patiently on God's timing and instead we tend to become impatient and Rush God's timing and impatience is so hard because impatience just leads to a ton of other things and patience pulls us

away from gratitude for what we already do have cuz we get so focused on what we're waiting on on it tends to pull us away from being where our feet are cuz we're so anxious about what God's timing and when it's going to happen it tends to bring us into anxiety it tends to make us angry when God doesn't answer us when we want and it tends to make us envious and jealous of those around us our friends family whatever who already have what we are waiting on God for so welcome to the house of

Jacob podcast we in this house we serve the Lord I'm your host Braxton and this is episode number seven in our Overcomers Series so if you're new here for the last couple weeks on the podcast we've been doing this series where each week we are talking about how to overcome a certain sin or struggle in your walk with God so this week we're going to talk about how to overcome impatience and wait on God's timing um so here's what we're going to do in this week's video we're going to talk about a lot about impatience

we're going to talk about God's timing versus our timing and how to view God's timing properly and all these things and then we're going to talk about how to overcome impatience and how to wait on God's timing the right way um I will warn you guys for those who have a short attention span just listen to this video this is one of my favorite episodes I've written out yet um like literally each section of this episode each part we're going to talk about every scripture is like a different Revelation for real um so if you

have a Bible with you turn to Isaiah 60 um so the verse I quote at the beginning of the video um is Isaiah 6022 and in ESV it says the least one shall become a clan and the smallest one a mighty nation I am the Lord in its time I will Hassen it um so in context God if you read all of Isaiah which I really recommend for context um God promised Israel he promises Israel a ton of stuff he promises them like all this glory and restoration and all these blessings and all these things

and he says that in the right time he will Hassen it he will he will hurry it to happen the Hebrew there um speaks of like speed and um like eagerness like God is saying he's not saying it's going to happen soon but he's saying at the right time I'm going to do it quick I'm going to I'm going to do it hastily I'm going to be eager to do it um so God doesn't promise that this will happen soon but he does promise when the time is right that it will happen quick he's going

to be eager to do it and it's the same with us it's the same in our walk with God now Isaiah 60 is not directly applicable to you God is not speaking directly to you here he was talking to Israel but it's applicable to us in the sense that in when the timing is right God will make it happen and he will do it quick God is eager to bless you God loves blessing you he loves giving you gifts he loves answering answering prayers but he's going to do it in the right time God here

in Isaiah 6022 he doesn't promise them he's going to do it soon he just says in the right time in the right time I will Hassen it it's the same with us so our timing and God's timing is very different um 2 Peter 3 8-9 is where we're going to flip to next 2 Peter 38 says but do not overlook this one fact beloved that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day so the immediate text here Peter in second Peter 3 was writing about the second

coming of Jesus so he's telling the people he was writing to here that God is going to do it God is not going to be slow to act he says in 2 Peter 3:9 the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but is patient towards you not wishing that any should perish but all should reach repentance so Peter here is writing about the second coming of Jesus he's saying God is not going to be slow to fulfill This Promise as some may view slowness but he's actually being patient with you

guys because he wants all he doesn't want anyone to perish it's not his will that anyone goes to hell he wants people to come to repentance so God's God's God is being patient with us when he's coming back he's waiting to come back because Jesus it's his will that you know all be saved so he's being patient he's not in a hurry to come back so to us it may feel like the Lord is slow to move in our lives but that's our futile thinking as humans Peter literally says here the Lord's not slow to

fulfill his promise as some count slowness so as some people view slowness the Lord's not slow at all if anything so to us it may feel like the Lord is being slow to answer our prayers to heal us to bring a miracle to whatever it is in your life it may feel like God is being slow to do what you're asking but if anything go to Second Peter 3 here Peter when literally talk about the second coming of Jesus says he he's not slow to fulfill his promise to you as some count slowness so our

timing is very very different from God and we got to remember God is perfect and God is perfectly good so everything he does is good everything he does is perfect including his timing there is nothing that God can do that is not good there's nothing that God can do that is not perfect so in your life when it looks like God it's taking forever to answer your prayer and God's you know it's like oh but I feel like the right timing is right now and God's not doing it what's happening it's like God is not

capable of doing something that isn't good because he is perfect God is it is impossible for God to do something that isn't perfect so when God is moving in your life it's perfect God's timing is perfect and it might not look like it to you but that's where God says in Isaiah 55 8-9 for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways declares the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts so we got to understand

with God God's way so when the way God works the way God moves is higher than the way we do the way God thinks thinks God's thoughts are infinitely higher than ours the same way that the heavens are higher than the earth so we have thoughts God has thoughts but his are way above ours so his timing is way better than ours so to us it may seem like we know the right time but God knows the right time and I think this here's something I've learned with impatience to rush God's timing and go on

your own timing is to regard your timing as better than his it is to say that your timing is better than God's or in other words it's to say that you would do a better job as God over your life as Lord over your life than God is currently doing so when you're rushing God's time you're saying my timing is better I know best me me me so you're saying you would do a better job as Lord over your life than God is doing so we got to Humble ourselves when we're think about God's timing

we got to understand god is perfect God's timing is perfect and we got to we got to understand that God is perfect and ruling our life and the Rush's timing is to say otherwise and I think I've learned this when we talk about God's timing it is better to trust God's timing and wait and be slow to Quick slow to move then be Hasty and Rush God's timing and it completely fall apart it is better for you to trust God's timing and have what you're waiting on work and be perfect then to rush God's timing

and do it on your timing and it completely fall apart I've seen that in my life because I'm a hasty person sometimes I I am really impulsive like I am always like all right what's next and I I'm really bad about inquiring with the Lord before doing something and I tend to be Hasty and that's bitten me in the butt before like I'll tell you guys man I've moved places I know God didn't want me to move and he forced me out of there I've had friendships I shouldn't have had I've made decisions I shouldn't

have made because I was quick to make them I didn't inquire of the Lord and I learned better so it's better to trust God's timing and it work than to rush God's timing and it fall apart so there's a battle in our minds regarding God's timing here's what I learned there is a battle in our mind regarding God's and I would refer to this battle as the battle between futility and infinity because we have this battle in our minds where we are constantly battling with God's timing we are battling between viewing God's timing fut in

a futile mind as a futile human then to view it in the infinite perspective and understand that our God is infinite he's not limited the same way we are God is outside of time so there's a battle we have a battle to view God's timing in different ways so going back to Second Peter 3 we can view it in Feud our minds we can view God's timing in Feud on minds and think Jesus is slow to return to the Earth but then we can view in an infinite mind and say man Peter is saying here

Peter Peter is viewing it out of infinity and he's saying hey with God one day is as a thousand years Peter Peter is viewing God as he should he's saying God's timing is very different than yours one day is as a thousand years that's so hard for us to comprehend because think about time like this God is here here God is outside of time he stepped into time when he when Jesus was born but God is outside of time God is far outside of time he is viewing all time at once because God is omnipresent

so don't think about God like a human when we're talking about God God's timing don't think about God with a futile mind with a human mind with a weak mind think about God with a right Theology of his Omni presence of his all of him being all present and him being outside of time you got to think about God with a right mind and his timing with the right mind and I want to say this waiting on God's timing is not a bad thing it's not a bad thing to wait on God's timing we tend

to view it as Christians like it is as Christians we tend to view waiting on God's timing like it's a bad thing but the Bible says otherwise Lamentations 3: 26 said it is good it is good that one should wait quietly for the Salvation of the Lord let me give you the context of Lamentations this is a group of poems the book of Lamentations was a group of poems written while the writer who's traditionally thought of to be the Prophet Jeremiah was writing while watching their people be exiled out of their city and their City

be destroyed by the Babylonians so you know what's happening here Jeremiah is writing while watching his people be exiled by the Babylonians and the Babylonians literally destroy his home his City he's watching that happen and guess what he says it's a good thing to wait quietly for the Salvation for the Lord the salvation of the Lord so you know what he would literally be saying there Jeremiah would have literally been saying there it's a good thing to wait quietly for God to save us from the Babylonians so let me humble you real quick you're too

busy complaining about waiting on God's timing saying oh but God hasn't done this for me and I still don't have this I still don't have that and Jeremiah the prophet was writing while watching his City be destroyed that it's good to wait on God's timing so if Jeremiah can write while watching a city be destroyed that it's good to wait on God's timing I'm pretty sure you can wait on God's timing patiently so you got to humble yourself man we get we start complaining especially as American Christians more than anything about the stupidest things oh

I still haven't met my wife I still haven't met my Godly husband my proverbs 31 and all the all these stupid things it's like the Prophet Jeremiah was literally writing that it's a good thing to wait on God's timing while his city was getting destroyed so we got to Humble ourselves and if that don't humble you I don't know what is because that humbled me I read that and I read the context of Lamentations which was written after the book of Jeremiah when God was judging them using the Babylonians and Jeremiah says it's a good

thing it's a good thing that this happening it's a good thing to wait quietly for the Salvation of the Lord but I do think waiting on God's timing can become a bad thing and here's when waiting on God's timing becomes bad impatience as I mentioned in the intro can lead to a lot of other things for example here's my favorite one the relationship between impatience and envy impatience can lead us to Envy those around us see say say you're waiting on God to bless you with a certain thing and your best friend has that certain

thing God's blessed them with that and you're waiting on that impatience can make you envious of what they have it can make you look at them and be like man and it can make you covet what they have because you're being impatient with God's timing impatience can lead us to a lot of other things impatience can make us anxious about the future um it can make us it can make us lose gratitude because we act like a little child we get so caught up in what we don't have that we become like entitled and ungrateful

for what we already do have so I think impatience can do a lot it can cause us to lose gratitude for what we do have because what happens is is we get so focused on what we don't have that we get impatient we get ungrateful for what we do have God has given us all these great things I mean you have breath in your lungs but you get so impatient about what you're waiting on God for that you're completely disregarding that you're getting pissed off at God because he hasn't answered your one prayer I'm like

dude you're lucky you woke up this morning you're blessed you woke up this morning and you're complaining about this one thing man God does not owe you that God doesn't owe you anything you should be thinking him that you have breath in your lungs instead of complaining about his timing I want to give you an analogy James 1:17 think about it like this I love this analogy I'm going to give you an analogy about waiting on God's timing James 1:17 says every good and perfect gift comes from above from the father of heavenly lights who

does not change like shifting Shadows think about it like a birthday gift when someone gives you a gift on your birthday they don't owe you a birthday gift they're giving you a gift because they're celebrating you so James says that every good and perfect gift everything God gives us is a gift and it's a gift in the sense that God does not owe you anything God does doesn't owe you a reward it's not like a paycheck here like God's paying you for your labor God owes you nothing because there's nothing you can give back to

God that God does not already have in himself he's self-sufficient so because of that everything is a gift so with a birthday gift someone gives you a birthday gift and they don't owe it to you now here's the thing it is impossible to become entitled with a birthday gift because you know the gift wasn't Ed to you I mean how often when someone doesn't get you a birthday gift do you get angry at them because you feel like they owe you a gift they don't a gift is a gift because it's not owed so when

we can humble ourselves and say God doesn't owe me anything we can become patient because there's two kids here in this scenario in this analogy there's the kid who feels like that their parent owes them a gift for their birthday so when they don't get that certain thing they ask for they get angry they throw a temper tantrum then there's the other kid who's grateful for whatever they get on their birthday because they know their parents didn't even have to give them gifts there's nothing required of that so that's what looks like for us when

we wait on God's timing we have to Humble ourselves to know God doesn't owe me anything so let me be grateful for what he has given me because even what he's given me he's given me by his grace so let me tell you why you struggle with impatience entitlement going back to that analogy the reason you struggle with impatience is entitlement because you feel like God owes you something if you understood that God owes you nothing but he gives you everything it would be impossible for you to become impatient because how can you be impatient

for something that God doesn't even owe you that's the issue God doesn't owe you anything and he's giving you everything so if you can humble yourself and stop being entitled that'll make you patient so a lot of the reason we become impatient as Christians is because we're entitled because we think God owes us things so we get impatient we're like God why haven't you given me this why haven't you give me that when are you going to do this and it's like God doesn't have to do that God doesn't owe you anything you're lucky he

gave you breath in your lungs once again so if anything the way we become patient is humility we humble ourselves and say God doesn't owe me anything let me be grateful for whatever I do have that's why you struggle with imp patience because you're entitled you believe God owes you something and if you could just say man God doesn't owe me anything let me just be patient because if he doesn't owe me anything let me just be grateful for whatever he does give me let me just receive it with open hands and a grateful heart

so let me show you how to wait on God's timing how to wait on God's timing now how to not wait on God's timing don't be envious don't get angry when he doesn't answer you when wants don't get in or when you want don't get entitled don't get selfish don't get impatient all that how to wait on God's timing let me tell you how to wait on God's timing as a Christian here's what David says David says in Psalm 27:14 wait for the Lord be strong and Let Your Heart Take courage wait for the Lord

how do we wait on God's timing we be strong and let our heart take courage that's how we wait on God's timing we're strong and we let our heart take courage so let me give you an analogy about how to wait on God's timing when you hear the word waiter or someone who's waiting when you hear that there's someone waiting there's there's two kind of things here there's two kind of context there's someone who say like a doctor's appointment they're waiting in the waiting room for the doctor to bring them back and check them out

then there's the person who works at a restaurant they're a waiter they're a server so they're not waiting for anything they just serve people throughout the restaurant I call this active waiting in our walk with God so there's two there's two ways we wait on God's timing one person they just sit there and they don't do anything and they're just waiting for God to bring them back into the office and whatever they're just waiting for God to do whatever it is they're waiting on they're not doing anything but then there's the waiter there's the server

and Jesus calls us to serve in Mark 10 so here's what they do they act like a waiter in a restaurant so think about like this in a restaurant you just that person just paid for their check and you're waiting on them to give you their tip you're waiting for them to leave the restaurant so you can go grab your check and get your tip so no waiter while they're waiting on their tip from that one table goes and just stands and forgets all their other tables cuz waiting on this one what they do is

they go serve all their other tables and eventually they see that one left and left the tip and they go get it that's how we're supposed to wait on God's timing we don't just sit here and wait and okay God when are you going to give it to me what we do is we serve I call it active waiting you don't just sit when you're waiting on God's time you go serve you go from table to table because you got other tables to tend to in your life you're waiting on God to bring you a

marriage for example okay go focus on your friendships go focus on your finances go focus on your job your education go Focus focus on your church go focus on all these other things and eventually maybe there's someone sitting at that table but you got to wait on God's timeing you don't just sit and stare at this one table waiting for someone to sit there you go and you serve all your other things in your life you go serve all your other tables you go serve that friend you go serve in your church you go do

this and do that and you focus you're actively waiting that's the difference and I know this like a corny youth pastor type analogy but the reason I'm giving you this is because there's two kinds of ways we wait on God's timing we sit and wait with like okay God when are you going to give it to me or we sit we go serve we go say Okay God while I'm waiting on you to do this because I trust that you will I trust that you're faithful to answer my prayers what can I do right now

you know I'm not guaranteed to wake up today but I did so what can I do what do you want me to do today okay let me read my Bible okay let me call that friend okay let me ask how I can pray for this other friend okay let me go to work okay let me do my homework you're like focusing on all your other tables while you're waiting on that one to keep going with the analogy so let me give you some basic principles for waiting on God's timing don't envy others focus on where

your feet are be thankful for what you do have and remember the Lord owes you nothing four points if you're taking notes now here's the last thing we're going to touch on how to overcome impatience because that's the main subject of this video this video is kind of like a double topic so we're kind of talking about how to wait on God's timing but we're also doing the Overcomer Series so we're also talking about how to overcome impatience and become patient with God's timing so um James 4:13 to16 says this it says come now you

who say today or tomorrow we'll go into such town and such a town and spend spend a year there and trade and make a profit yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring what is your life for you are a miss that appears for a little time and then vanishes instead you ought to say if the Lord Wills we will live and do this or that as it is you boast in your arrogance all such boasting is evil so you want to know how to overcome impatience in your walk with God and how to

wait on God's timing patiently humility and faith focus on what James says in verse 15 he says instead you should say if the Lord Wills we will live if the Lord Wills I will even live and do this or do that that is how we live so instead of saying man I don't have this I don't have that we need to Humble ourselves and say man I'm not even guaranteed to be here tomorrow and I'm so impatient about God's timing I don't even know if I'm going to be here tomorrow let me be present where

I am let me stop boasting about tomorrow and assuming I will be here tomorrow and say if the Lord Wills I will be alive tomorrow if the Lord Wills I will have that prayer answered if the Lord Wills that promise will come to pass and we learn to be where our feet are and the other way that's humility the other way is Faith Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is confidence in things hoped for and Assurance of things unseen focus on the first part confidence of things hope for it is us being confident and I think

the Greek there speaks of like a deep confidence a deep trust and conviction faith is confidence in what we hope for so the way we become patient with God's timing is we humble ourselves elves and understand we're not even guaranteed to be here any tomorrow and we have faith in God's timing we have faith that at the right time the Lord will make it happen we have faith that God is faithful we have faith in what we hope for we have faith so like for me sometimes I struggle with the idea of being married I

don't know why but that's like hard for me to comprehend I don't know why that's just a crazy thought to me that like if the Lord Wills I will spend the rest of my life with one person like I'm not saying that's hard to comprehend in the sense that like I can't commit to one person saying it's hard to comprehend in the sense that like there is someone out there that I will meet that is going to be good for me and godly that I'll spend my life with so for me it's it's man I

have faith that if it's if it's within the Lord's will there's the humility I have faith that if it's within God's will this will happen God will bless me with a partner God is faithful it it may be hard for me to comprehend that but my God is infinite and my God can do anything so whatever is even hard for me to comprehend it doesn't matter because my God can do anything so it's faith and humility because I think it becomes impossible it becomes impossible to be impatient when you humble yourself as Christians it is

impossible for us to be impatient with God's timing when we humble oursel because we realize that God owes us nothing and we live in constant gratitude for whatever he graciously gives us so when we live in that humility we stop focusing on all the things we're waiting on we stop focusing on all the things we want God to do in our lives and we focus on what he already has graciously and it humbles us we say man thank you God for everything you've already given me and then you stop focusing on everything you don't have

so I think in a sense patience is the opposite of impatience in a sense that is true but I also think in another sense so is humility and gratitude for some reason when we are humble and we're grateful we're not normally impatient and obviously when we're patient we're not impatient but in a sense when we humble ourselves and when we be grateful for what whatever we have already we tend to not be impatient anymore so I think we need to learn to pray in God's timing here's the last thing we're really going to touch on

um Psalm 6913 David prays but as for me my prayer is to you oh Lord at an acceptable time how many times you ever pray that I don't pray that at an acceptable time oh God in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness so David prays at an acceptable time God answer me and the Hebrew here for acceptable time really means like a time of favor a a time of Goodwill um so really David is saying God at the time when your favor is upon me answer me but I think

this is so funny because literally four verses later guess what David says he says make haste to answer me so you know what David says this is literally us if I've ever seen it as Christians God I trust your timing your will be done and not my own but answer me quickly like that's literally what David is saying here and that's us that is me if I've ever seen it um and that's why I love the Psalms it shows the the H how human David is if anything in his prayers um so I think that's

what we got to learn to pray though as Christians is as God at an acceptable time answer me at a at a right time answer me instead of saying God give me this now I want this I want this I want this say God if it's within your will please give me this and please answer me at an acceptable time at a time of favor answer me in in your favor answer me in your good will answer me in your steadfast Love in Your Grace that's what we have to learn to pray so let us

pray um Lord I Thank you for this week's video I thank you for um just this beautiful word on patience and your timing I thank you that your timing is perfect I thank you that you are perfect and everything you do is perfect um help us to just trust your timing God I pray over every single person that will watch this video at any given point um I just pray you help them to trust your timing in every area of their life um help them to wait patiently for you Lord let them be strong and

let their heart take courage um God I pray pray that you would answer our prayers whatever each of us are praying you know what I'm praying Lord you know what they're praying I pray you would answer us at an acceptable Time Lord we pray that you make haste to answer us but God we pray that you answer us at an acceptable time we pray you answer us in your will and not ours for we know that our will is it is not perfect and really if you answered all of our prayers and our timing they

would probably all fall apart so God help us just wait on your timing trust your timing let us trust that your ways are above our ways um and God let let's just be strong in our waiting um and I thank you for what you do in the waiting um and Lord I pray for every person would you just bless them keep them make your face shine upon them be gracious unto them turn your face toward them and give them peace in Jesus mighty name we pray amen I want to teach you guys one last thing

about waiting Seasons times where you're waiting on God's timing if I have learned anything in my walk with God is that often waiting seasons are really just refining Seasons really we should just call waiting Seasons refining Seasons because the Lord prunes you the most in the times that you are waiting the longest that is where the Lord is pruning you the most that's where the Lord is growing and refining you the most is in the waiting so I want to tell you guys don't rush whatever you're waiting on man I don't know if that's a

new career I don't know if that's like an answer about your calling like I don't know if that's a spouse money I I don't know what it is I have no clue what it is for y'all y'all know what it is for y'all all I know is don't R God's timing because what he does in the waiting is so important I want to you I want to leave you guys with one last thing Psalm 34:10 says the Young Lions suffer want and hunger but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing no good thing

they lack no good thing sorry for the pause I had to burp so it may look like in your life that whatever you're waiting on is a good thing but remember you're a human and God is Not don't think about God like a human so those who seek the Lord they don't lack anything good so let me tell you this I know you're seeking the Lord and if you're not you should be but here's the thing it may seem like it is a good thing it may seem like it is good timing or whatever it

is God knows what is good and those who seek the Lord lack no good thing so I'm going to leave you with one last thing if you needed it right now you would have it God bless you guys I'll see you next Sunday