Today we are continuing to talk about overcoming temptations that we often face and matching them with parables.  Today we are looking at overcoming the temptation of impatience and looking at this short but powerful parable of the Persistent Widow.  Jesus is being very straight forward in giving the reason up front regarding why he was telling this parable.

  Look in verse 1…Jesus told this parable to show that we should always pray and not give up. So, this is more directly related to persevering in our prayers, especially when we may not get immediate answers.  We are encouraged in this parable not to quit or give up in our prayers. In essence, this requires patience!

And who does Jesus give as our model or chief example?  A widow. (Show pic of Persistent Widow here).   Remember Jesus used the example of the widow’s 2 mites to honor her giving more than any others. (Luke 21:1-4). (Show pic of widow’s 2 mites).   Jesus is using a person who was considered weak and helpless and considered among the lowest status in society of her day.  Yet like the widow’s mite in giving, Jesus is honoring this woman for her persistence or patience in prayer.

The other interesting part of this parable is the ending.  Jesus references when the Son of Man returns and questions if He will find faith.  The implication would be faith like this persistent widow.  But the major point is that God will bring justice to his servants like this widow who persistently prays for needed answers even though those answers were not immediately given. Here is a key point:  If this unjust judge granted this woman justice, even though he did not fear God or care about people, how much more will God answer those who call out to Him for help. 

But the key part is that we must be like this persistent widow and not lose heart or stop praying.  This would relate to having patience when you face hardships or delays.  Hence the title today Overcoming the Temptation of Impatience.

Sometimes you can understand something better by thinking about its opposite.  So, what is the opposite of patience?  Anxiousness.  Restlessness or frustration.  Maybe even anger.  Being antsy for something to happen or for a package to arrive or for the phone call from that special person or tests results from your doctor.  Our emotions run differently depending on the context of the waiting.

For most in our culture there is what I would call a:   DREAD OF WAITING

God I am ready for the door to open for that new job…now is the time!  I’m waiting!

God I am ready for you to let me get that house that I’ve been looking for… I’m waiting!

God I am ready for you to take away this health issue… I’m waiting!

God… you might be able to fill in your own blanks here with something you want more immediately in your life.

This past week our AC went out.  I called our AC person on Tuesday to set up a time to inspect our unit.  We set up a time for Friday. That same day I felt warmer in the house and went to see the thermostat.  It registered almost 10 degrees higher than the setting.  I thought to myself, “Oh no!  This unit is 17 years old now and it is likely worn out”.  So, I called him back and told him the situation and asked if he could come sooner because the AC was not working.  I’m so thankful he said he would come the next morning.  He came as scheduled.  But the bad news was we had to replace our AC unit. Now I’m thankful we were able to accomplish this quickly.  I’m thankful that he was able to get the AC up and working.  But what if I had to wait another week or two weeks?  Or maybe longer.  I know you are thinking you would be looking for another AC technician.   But it is at these moments when our patience is really tested.

We might be saying, “Ready, set, Go!”  But rather it is, Ready, Set, “No!”  Now we are facing something we did not expect or want to hear. “Sorry you are going to have to WAIT”.

We believe God’s timing is always perfect… but not always according to our plan or calendar.And it is during these times that we must admit that waiting is very difficult for us.

 Waiting is especially difficult in our culture of instantaneous results.  We have instant potatoes and instant grits and push-button machines.  We turn a key or flip a switch and things happen.  So, when the engine doesn’t turn on or the electricity goes out or the AC is broken…This creates quite a bit of tension for most of us. Like this widow, even in our time, the court system is very slow in processing cases!  Yet we are conditioned for immediate responses.  So, waiting is something we dread and struggle to handle well.

Chelsea Wald wrote an article about her impatience.  Are you impatient with slow pokes and frustrated by waiting? If so, you will identify with what Chelsea Wald:

Not long ago I diagnosed myself with the recently identified condition of sidewalk rage. It’s most pronounced when it comes to a certain friend who is a slow walker. Last month, as we sashayed our way to dinner, I found myself biting my tongue, thinking, I have to stop going places with her if I ever want to … get there! 

Slowness rage is not confined to the sidewalk, of course. Slow drivers, slow Internet, slow grocery lines—they all drive us crazy. Slow things drive us crazy because the fast pace of society has warped our sense of timing. Things that our great-great-grandparents would have found miraculously efficient now drive us around the bend. Patience is a virtue that’s been vanquished in the Twitter age.  I’m not sure God has a Twitter account but if He does, He will certainly not always give responses as quickly as we desire!

Speaking of this, it points to another part of this related to patience and waiting.   We struggle with waiting, especially because of the:

DURATION OF WAITING…   HOW LONG?

This is seen in the famous question when you are traveling or going on a trip… Are we they yet? (Show pics here).   We often ask at a restaurant, “How long is the wait here?”  When our car is in the shop.  When we are making a flight and looking at layovers. When we are in a traffic jam.    We are caught up in the duration of the waiting.  And asking a common human cry, “How long O Lord?”

I find it very interesting that we do not know how long this widow waited for the judge to grant her plea.  Jesus does not tell us the duration of her waiting. The verse that describes this simply reads, “for some time he refused” … That’s it.  Just “some time” without details.  It may have been days.  It may have been months.  It may have been years.  We do not know.  I believe Jesus left the duration of her waiting indefinite because often the answers we may be looking for, like this widow, remain IDEFINITE.  In many cases we do not know how long we will have to wait for answers.  And in this time of uncertainty, we are very tempted to act impulsively or take matters into our own hands.  Very often I find we are tempted to get ahead of God when we want more immediate action!   

The book of Hebrews uses Abraham as a model of faith and patience to inherit the promises of God.  Let’s look at: Hebrews 6:13-15

13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

The scripture tells us that Abraham waited patiently for the promise of God to be fulfilled.  So how long did Abraham have to wait for this to happen?  And let me say that while Abraham waited, there was at least one point where he and Sarah grew impatient. Most of us know this story. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, who was barren, making it seem impossible for Abraham to have descendants as God promised. Due to this predicament, Abraham through Sarah’s request, took another woman named Hagar to bear a child. However, God made a promise to Abraham that he would become the father of many nations by having a son with his wife Sarah, not Hagar.  We might say that Sarah and Abraham got ahead of God and tried to help God accomplish the promise.  Can we simply say…This never works out well.   When we get tired of waiting and try to take matters into our own hands there are always negative consequences.

But that’s the way sin works. It makes great promises but never tells you about the drawbacks. Sin is like those medication commercials you see on television. The thirty-second commercial takes 25 seconds telling you what great benefit this new miracle drug will have for you.  And then the next 5 seconds explaining all the negative side effects including, vomiting, heart attack, or paralysis or death. Now I’m not convinced I want to take that drug, right?   The only difference between these commercials and sin, is that sin suppresses the negative side effects until after you’ve committed the sin. You received what you wanted. But you rushed ahead of God and now your life is going to be negatively impacted in more ways than you would have ever realized.

 The son born of Hagar was Ishmael. Just as Isaac had physical and spiritual descendants, so also does Ishmael. This reaches all the way to today.  Muslims claim that God promised the land of Israel to Ishmael.  This is why there is such a struggle between the Arabs and Jews even to this day.  Again, it is never good when we lose patience and try to take short cuts and help God achieve His promise.

When God made this promise, Abraham believed it, despite being quite old and his wife well past the age of menopause. After 15 years of waiting for the promise, God visited Abraham again and assured him that the promise would be fulfilled in due time. It took another 10 years after the reassurance for Abraham and Sarah to give birth to a son who was named Isaac.  Even through his shortcomings, Abraham did trust God and received the promise.  And God was faithful to what God promised!

Of course, this is a strong temptation because we struggle with the DURATION of waiting. And this is where patience becomes so important.  We are conditioned for things to happen now.  I mean right NOW!   In the words of the song…. We want it all and we want it NOW!  This is the recurring struggle in our human condition.

When we think God should act or do something more immediately, we are sometimes disappointed with God and God’s timing.  But it is clear God has a purpose in our waiting. God has a:

DESIGN OF WAITING

MIT operations researcher Richard Larson is the world’s leading expert on waiting in lines to discover the psychology behind our waiting. According to Larson, the length of our wait is not as important as what we’re doing while we wait. Essentially, we tolerate “occupied time” (for example, walking to baggage claim) far better than “unoccupied time” (such as standing at the baggage carousel). Give us something to do while we wait, and the wait becomes endurable.

I asked a group of men how they can sit in a deer stand for hours or be out in a fishing boat for hours and not be stressed or frustrated. Or for ladies (not to stereotype here) how they go shopping for hours and not be stressed?   One of the answers given was related to our choice.  In cases where waiting involves our free choice it is more relaxing and even a way to relieve stress. 

But in other cases where we have no choice in waiting, like when we are stuck in a traffic jam or in a doctor’s office or when our car breaks down, we are forced into a waiting mode that makes us anxious or frustrated. (Show pics of frustrated drivers here)

This is why, so often, waiting on God feels like unoccupied time to us. We wait, but what is really happening behind the scenes of our life?  We sometimes may question if God is doing anything.   Waiting on God implies developing a new perspective of what God is doing while we wait on Him and this relates more directly to patience.

The scriptures offer some great perspective about what waiting produces in us.  We may not like the answer more directly. But let’s look at a few of them quickly:

James 1:2-3 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

This is not to say that we are enjoying trials or struggles, but it is our attitude and mindset that helps us endure trials.  I find it interesting that the fruit of Joy helps us get through our struggles to bring us to greater maturity.  Here we see how these fruit overlap with each other.  I believe this was the attitude of the persistent widow also!

It has often been said by many Christians, “Patience is not one of my virtues”.  “I am not a patient person”.  “I have some of the other fruit of the Spirit, but patience is not for me”.  But let me say that while patience may not be fully developed in your life, it is a fruit that God wants to develop in every Christian.  All Christians are to experience all the fruit of the Spirit.  So patience is something God has designed to work in you through the Spirit.

We find the other extreme where people want or desire patience.  But they want it now.  Hence the common prayerful expression, “Lord, give me patience and give it to me NOW!”   But that is just the problem! We might want an automatic infusion of patience like getting an IV to help you quickly recover or like going to sleep and waking up with patience. As nice as that would be… We find here that it is developed more through struggles.  You see this clearly throughout the scriptures. Let’s look at a few of them quickly.

Psalm 25:1-3

1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.  2 O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame;     do not let my enemies exult over me. 3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. I waited patiently for the Lord and He heard me. (written during a time when enemies were surrounding him)

Isaiah 40:31  

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.  (written during a time when Israel was torn apart and scattered)

Finally, we see waiting is built into the whole creation.

Romans 8:19  the whole creation is waiting for its full redemption.  It is groaning to be released from its struggles and futility.

  We as the people of God are waiting for our full redemption to be released from the pains and limitations of this life.  But we are not there yet.  We are waiting in hope for the coming of Christ. We see again this message of patience in Romans 8:25 but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Back to the parable.  Jesus commended the poor widow for her persistence…her patience in waiting for an undetermined time for the judge to grant her request.  She kept coming back and asking again and again until justice was granted. Now here is the vital link Jesus is making at the end of the parable. All of us in the whole creation are waiting for our Lord to return.  We do not know when that will happen.  But we are to wait patiently depending on His promise, being well assured that no matter what happens here, our future is secure.  God will bring His righteous reign over us.  We are waiting in hope and waiting with patience.

Friends, we can honestly say, sometimes it is difficult to wait, especially in situations when you are going through great difficulties.  But it is through faith (trusting God) and patience (waiting on God) that we will inherit the promises.  Let me close with this inspiring story.  (Show the Video of Steven Akhwari here if time permits)

In the 1968 Olympics in Mexico a runner from Tanzania whose name was John Steven Akhwari was competing in the marathon race.  He finished the race a full hour behind the one who won the gold from Ethiopia.  Akhwari fell and badly hurt his leg.  He was bandaged and bleeding and most of the crowd had left the stadium.  But they heard the sirens and the whistles blowing and here came Steven Akhwari, limping and bleeding and trotting across the finish line.

He was interviewed afterward and they asked, “Why didn’t you just quit, why didn’t you just stay down, why didn’t you give up?”  And he said, “My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race.  They sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.” (Steven Akhwari).

Friends, I think we need to absorb that statement as it relates to patience and perseverance.  We all can start the race, but God wants us to finish it.  And I hope we might be as Paul who patiently endured to say…

I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, (I didn’t just start the race…I finished it… I ran with patience the race to finish it… I have kept the faith.   And that will only happen if we continue to be like Paul trusting God and waiting patiently to inherit the promise and receive a crown of life.  2 Timonthy 4:7