The Socially Acceptable Sin of Impatience

Dec 2 2022 - Eric Buresh

In a recent meeting at church, someone asked me my greatest weakness in the faith. I quickly selected the socially acceptable sin of impatience. What do I mean by socially acceptable? I am talking about those “sins” we don’t mind or maybe even like to confess to each other. Impatience is one of those sins because by confessing it, we are often really communicating that a) I’m super busy, or b) my time is important, and we often mutually reinforce our self-serving confessions with responses like “You’re so busy, I understand why patience would be a struggle. I struggle with that too.” Confession of socially acceptable sins is akin to going into a job interview and saying that your greatest weakness is that sometimes you get carried away and work too hard! The positive negative. Good strategy, poor confession. 

The next morning after this conversation, I was reading my Bible in 1 Samuel, just cruising through the stories, minding my own business =). David was being chased by King Saul who was trying to kill David and his family. In Chapter 22, David takes his family to the King of Moab for protection and asks, “Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?” (1 Samuel 22:3). That italicized phrase caught my eye and then triggered my heart as the Word is so prone to do. David was patiently waiting on God to act. This is the same David that wrote, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14). He was a man after the heart of the God “who acts for those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 64:4). David was unquestionably patient, but his patience was a fruit of something deeper.   

David knew that God would act for his good. David trusted God. David had a deep dependent confidence. He walked by faith, not by sight; by the Spirit, not by his own power. And David’s faith produced patience. (Galatians 5:22 and 3:5). Just like David, we know that God is always working for our good. (Romans 8:28). He is working a million things for us big and small all the time, and we often can’t see or understand His purposes. We don’t have the foresight to know how God will act for us or how He will meet our every need, but faith grows our confidence that He will and that it will be the very best for us both in result and timing. 

So, where does this connection between faith and patience leave us? Perhaps impatience is not so socially acceptable. When we proudly spotlight impatience in the image-crafting game of socially acceptable confession, what we are really confessing is that we lack faith. That we don’t trust God. We don’t believe His promises, or we don’t believe that He has the sovereign power to keep them. Let me have a second go at the question that started this. What’s my greatest weakness in the faith? I don’t have the faith in God that I should. Too often, my heart doesn’t believe His promises or His power to keep them. I often feel like I need to take control myself and then my faith fails even more. That is when I get impatient and act out as I flounder about in my own tiny strength. Please pray for me that God grows my faith every day, more and more. I want so badly to have the faith David exhibited, but I’m not there yet. I am hugely thankful that God draws near in my imperfections, He continues to work in me, and He will complete His work to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25 and Philippians 1:6). Praise the Lord!