Joyce Meyer - Breaking Free Of Wilderness Mindsets

We are now, this morning, going to talk about wrong thought pattern number five, which is, "I just can't wait any longer. God, You gotta do something right now. I just can't wait any longer." It's an impatient mindset and attitude.

How many of you have ever threatened, "God, if You don't do something, I'm gonna give up. God, if I don't have a breakthrough in the next few days, I'm out of here."

Well, can I tell you what? God is not one iota impressed by that. Matter of fact, I think He laughs. Impatience is the fruit of pride. I'm gonna let you think about that a second.

We think what we should have what we want right now, and we're not even considering that maybe God knows better than we do. Maybe God's got a plan that He's working, and maybe whatever it is that we're going through that we're not getting our breakthrough on when we want it, is actually something that we need to continue to go through for a while because it's building spiritual muscles in us, stretching our faith and developing us into the person that God needs us to be for whatever He wants us to do in the future.

We need to learn how to trust God and say, "I believe my times are in Your hands." We think we deserve better than what we have. We certainly don't want to wait on anything or be inconvenienced. We don't even want to wait in a checkout lane in a grocery store, and we all know how we can act if the poor clerk runs out of the tape in her machine, or is a new clerk and doesn't seem to know what she's doing.

We have our christian cross around our neck, but our attitude doesn't portray Christianity. We all know how we can act in traffic, amen. Let's hear the low groans, amen. And so patience is very important.

The Bible says, "When patience is fully developed," and I love this, "You are a perfect man lacking in nothing." Another translation says, "When patience is fully developed, you are a perfect man wanting nothing".

And I really do believe when we can learn to trust God enough to believe that his timing is perfect, and that when the right time comes for us, that no devil in hell and no man on earth can keep us from getting what God wants us to have.

Did it ever occur to you, when you're dealing with that clerk in the store and she's not moving as fast as you'd like her to, that she's already under pressure and feels foolish because she's not performing right, and maybe, just maybe, just maybe there's an outside possibility that God put you there, not for you to get what you want, but for you to be an encouragement to her.

I used to get so impatient in situations like that, and now I've come to the point where I say, "You know what? I'm not so important that I can't stand here and wait a few minutes. Don't get under stress. Everything's fine. You're doing a good job."

Well, thank God I've come a long way in that area, but my natural personality has a tendency toward impatience. I'm a quick, strong-willed, type-a, choleric personality. I want it, I want it now, and I want it right when I get it. And so trust me, I understand that being patient is something that we have to do on purpose. It may not be something that we're gonna feel all the time, but let me tell you that you don't have to feel patient to be patient.

How we feel is in a category all by itself, but what we do is another story. You don't have to feel like acting right to act right. You don't to feel like doing what's right to do right. You don't have to feel like forgiving somebody in order to forgive them, because forgiveness is not about how you feel about them, it's how you and I believe that patience is probably one of the most important virtues that we can develop.

I believe that it really says a lot to people about stability, and it's also a way that we can love people who are maybe making mistakes and need to have somebody show them some patience.

Now, the Israelites were definitely impatient. "And they journeyed from mount Hor by way to the Red Sea, to go around the Land of Edom, and the people became impatient," and look what happened according to the amplified Bible, that came along with impatience, "(depressed and much discouraged), because [of the trials] of the way."

You know, the easiest route is not always the shortest route. Sometimes we think that we just want to get something quick, quick, quick, quick, but it's really not gonna be the best thing for us in the end. And then they went on to complain. You know, impatience causes complaining.

We stopped last night with that particular point, that the Israelites complained and they remained. And as long as we're complaining and murmuring and grumbling, we're gonna stay right where we're at. It's amazing how many things we can find to thank God for if we just think about each thing that we do as a blessing.

Impatience is one of the things that kept the Israelites in the wilderness, and it will be one of the things that will keep us from really enjoying the fullness of the promises of God.

How many of you tend toward being a little impatient? How many of you are, like, real impatient? And of course, once again, yeah, well, let me tell you. I drive with him. He's not perfectly patient, amen.

James 5:7 says, "Be patient as you wait." Now, I want to make a point out of that, because it does not say, "Be patient if you wait." So, "Be patient, brethren, as you wait till the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious harvest from the land. See how he keeps up his patient vigil over it."

Now, we can see that example. A farmer plants his seed and it does not look for a long time like one thing is happening. And we plant seeds of faith, we plant seeds of obedience, but our breakthroughs come not just through faith, but through faith and patience.

Now, hear me. Patience is not just waiting. It's how we act while we're waiting. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. It has to do with character. It has to do with temperament. It has to do with not getting angry when we don't get our way. It has to do with staying sweet when the situation that you're in is very sour.

We are not showing the world anything about Jesus if we get out there and act just like they do. So it's very important that we get a humble mind, which we've already talked about in this series, and that we realize that everybody doesn't have to move at our pace and it's not gonna be the end of the world if we have to wait on something, and we don't have to mistreat people because they're not giving us what we want the second that we want it, or when they make mistakes.