Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14

It amazes me how many times the challenge to be patient and have courage occurs in the Bible. It’s almost like our Heavenly Father is trying to tell us something!

When you think about it, the two go hand in hand. When we are impatient we tend to react instead of act. We lash out verbally. We take action without seeing all the possibilities or ramifications of our actions. We take unnecessary actions and later need to suffer the consequences. Think about it. It was one act of impatience the forced Moses to flee into the wilderness after his outburst of anger killed an Egyptian. It was one act of anger (impatience) that led him to strike the rock rather than speak to it as God commanded him. One forced him into the wilderness, the other forced him to stay in the wilderness.

While impatience can be thought of as acting too quickly, fear keeps us from acting at all. God often seems to link patience and courage together for a reason. One (patience) allows us time to listen to him. The other (courage) requires action! We don’t serve a stagnant God. He doesn’t change in character but if you’ve ever noticed a sunset you realize he rarely does things the same and always does them with excellence.

Courage is waiting for God’s timing and moving forward as he moves us.

Patience and courage. One gives us time to seek God’s wisdom, the other moves us forward with his blessing.