Please Remain Seated

I love how the concept of Biblical patience is captured idiomatically by the picture of “remaining seated in one’s heart.” We are all far too easily “riled up” as a culture. I’m sure you see it in your own life. None of us are immune from it. I can get crazy impatient when I see “line-cutters”. It just feels so unfair and I have little patience. I get “out of my seat in my heart”. Patience is a problem among us Westerners. Patience is a problem in my life. Thomas Watson described impatience up there with unbelief. He wrote, “There are no sins God’s people are more subject to than unbelief and impatience. They are ready either to faint through unbelief, or to fret through impatience.” Our God is a patient God and therefore our patience toward others isn’t based on them being worthy of our patience toward them, but on God’s patient heart to wretched sinners. Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) Patience is at the core of healthy friendships, families, and churches. Hear Paul’s admonition (and key) to preserving unity – “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Colossians 4:2-3) Impatience destroys … so please remain seated in your heart.