Here are 3 common signs that mean God is saying, “Be patient and I will provide it.”
1. If God Is Teaching You the Value of Talking Less and Working More, This Is Often a Sign the Lord Is Saying, “Be Patient and I Will Provide It!”
Proverbs 14:23 says, “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” There are certain things in life you can only learn by doing.
For example, let’s say you had access to an expert builder. You spent weeks talking to this man about how to build your dream house. Would that really help you learn what you needed to learn to build your dream house? Sure, it might help a little, but the real way to take advantage of this expert builder is to have him teach you as you build the house together. There’s a reason in the trades industries that there is such a huge emphasis on apprenticeships. You become an expert by working alongside an expert, not merely by talking with an expert.
The same is true when it comes to our relationship with God. Yes, talking to him prayer, meditating over his word, and learning from sermons is very essential. But in the end, if you never actually do anything with the Lord, you will not really learn to accomplish what you want to accomplish. Even when you try something but fail, you are always going to learn a valuable lesson through taking actions compared to merely talking about things all the time.
Talking, however, brings immediate gratification while working takes time to feel the pay off, which is why you have to have patience. If God is teaching you the value of work over talk, it’s biblical to assume in many areas of your life, he is also saying, “Be patient. Work hard. I will provide it.”
As Proverbs 13:4 says, “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”
2. If You Are Getting Frustrated that Rebellious People Are Prospering More Than You Even Though You Are Being Obedient, This Is a Good Sign God Is Saying, “Be Patient and I Will Provide It.”
If you want to prosper by the hand of God, you must be patient because in this world God does let sinful people prosper in their sin . . . for a moment. If you looked at the world and saw everything from a material perspective, you would start to believe the Bible is not true.
For example, Psalm 84:4-5 (NIV) states, “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.” But there are many people who hate God who seem to have great relationships, great jobs, a ton of money, popularity, health, and many other things that seem like blessings from God.
There are at least two errors with this thinking. One, we tend to overvalue material blessings. Yes, material things are blessings from the Lord, but they are never the main blessings from God. The Lord himself is our main blessing. People who choose stuff over God while they are on earth will reap eternal life a part from God. They won’t take their stuff with them. The second error with thinking rebellious people are prospering more than obedient people is that it takes time for us to reap what we are sowing. As Psalm 37:1-7 explains:
Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!”
If you are getting tired of seeing people prosper even though they are living sinful lives while you are not prospering even though you are trying to obey God, this is a sign the Lord is telling you to be patient. In time, we all reap what we sow.
3. If You Are Desiring a Greater Sanctification in a Particular Area of Your Life, This Is a Sign God Is Saying, “Be Patient and I Will Provide It”
After we are saved, which is done apart from our personal effort and works (Ephesians 2:8-9), God then calls us to continue to be sanctified.
Sanctification is the process by which we learn to live more and more holy as we mature in the Lord. This differs from justification, which is where God imputes the righteousness of Christ onto us all at once when we first believe.
Salvation and justification do not require personal effort because it’s all through faith and by grace. Sanctification, however, does requires our hard work over a long period of time along with faith. As Galatians 6:8-9 explains:
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
If you want to experience a greater holiness in your life, you have to work hard through the Spirit’s power day-by-day. But you also need to be patient, because this character building does not occur quickly. As it says, “in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
