When Patience Runs Out – May 17, 2026

Isaiah 40:27-31, Acts 1:6-26
May 17, 2026

“Lord, give me patience!  And quickly!”  That prayer is what one author calls a “paradoxical joke.”  “Give me patience – but do it quickly!”  It’s a joke because patience itself is the ability to wait for something.  So it’s like saying, “Give me the ability to wait, but I don’t want to wait for it!”

Patience is something that is seriously lacking in our world.  Everybody is in a big hurry any more!  And it’s one of the serious problems on our roads!  Think about that the next time you look in your rear view mirror, and the person behind you is so close you can’t see his front license plate!

As you may know, my car has a clutch.  And like you supposed to, I always take it out of gear at a red light, then take my foot off the clutch.  Well, I can’t tell you how many times the light turns green, I step on the clutch, shift the car into gear, and before I let the clutch back out and get moving, I hear a honk from the car behind me!  (You’ve heard that honk?)  The funny thing is, I’ve almost always had a clutch in all my cars, and that never happened before, when I lived in Bucks County in the ‘80’s.  It seems to me that the impatience out there has gotten worse!

Waiting is hard sometimes, isn’t it?  Having patience is not easy!  Especially if you have other things to do!  If you’re like me, you have a “to do” list each day.  And sometimes my list grows bigger as the day goes on, not smaller!  And I find I have to start to “pick up the pace,” a bit.  And that’s hard if one thing is taking too long, or if somebody makes me wait.

That can happen too, can’t it?  Because some people have no respect for other people’s time.  And if you think about it, time is one commodity that everybody has.  But, as a friend of mine used to say, some people don’t have minute hands on their watches!  They just have an hour hand!  And they’re always late!  They always make others wait for them.  And of course, some people don’t respect other people’s desire to move a little quicker.

A funny thing happened to me this week.  I was thinking about all this.  And I was writing this sermon – about patience.  And I had to go to a certain store.  (I don’t want to say the name.  Let’s just call it “Kohl’s.”)  I went to get one item – a package of my favorite socks!  And when I went to the checkout, there were eight cash registers, but only two of them had people working.  And, there was no “Customer Service” counter!  So the two people who were being waited on were doing some kind of complicated return or exchange or something.  When I walked up there was only one other person in line.  But whatever high-level negotiation wad happening up there, it took at least 15 minutes!  And there I stood, with my one package of socks!  But when I looked back, and there were now 15 people standing in line behind me!  Yes, I counted them!  I certainly had the time!

Well, all of this happened, after spending the morning fleshing out my thoughts about patience!  So, I had to ask myself – while I was waiting – and I had plenty of time to think about this! – was the good Lord trying to tell me something?  Was God giving me a good practical lesson about patience?  He certainly was using the current circumstances to give me that lesson!  Think about that the next time you’re in a long line somewhere.

Of course, patience is part of our faith.  In fact, we used to say, “patience is a virtue.”  My Mother used to say that to me when I was getting antsy about something.  What that means is that patience is one of those “higher attributes” we should pursue, especially in our life of faith.  When the Apostle Paul listed the “Fruit of the Spirit,” in Galatians 5, patience is in that list!  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…”  It’s even listed before, “kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control!”  It’s that important!  And patience is something we need to work on in our life of faith.  I know there are times I don’t do very well at it!  (Although I think I did pretty well that day in the store!)

Well, not only is patience part of our life of faith, it’s important for our spiritual well-being!  In the Old Testament, we have this idea of “Waiting for the Lord.”  We see that many places.  And it’s been described as “Trustful expectation.”  Isaiah wrote, “Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.  They shall mount up with wings like eagles.  They shall run and not be weary.  They shall walk and not faint.”  (Isaiah 40)  The Psalmist wrote, “Wait for the Lord.  Be strong, and let your heart take courage.  Yea, wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27)  When we learn patience, we learn that trustful expectation, we learn calmness and peace of mind.  And of course, “learning” those are things involves “choosing” those things!  (You knew I was going to use that word “choose” at some point, didn’t you!)

Today, in Acts chapter 1, we have two stories of patience – or the lack thereof.  This chapter, of course, is the account of Jesus’ Ascension.  But just before that happened, he had instructed his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  And of course, they had no idea what was about to happen to them!

Well then, he takes them to the mountaintop.  And just before he’s about to leave them, they ask him, “Lord, will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?”  You know that’s the question that was on everybody’s mind!  The Jewish people had been waiting for that for a long time!  And they were growing impatient!  And I’m sure the answer Jesus gave them didn’t satisfy them very much.  He said, “It’s not for you to know the time.”  “But!” he said.  “You will be my witnesses!”  And then he was gone!

So, that’s the first story.  The impatience of the people wanting their freedom.  And then we have this very interesting story about the choosing of Matthias.  The disciples believed that they needed to replace Judas as a disciple.  The number 12 was a very important number to them – as it apparently was to Jesus.  It was one of those important numbers in the Bible.  There were the 12 tribes of Judah, for example.

So they took it upon themselves to choose a new number 12.  And you have to wonder, were they supposed to have waited for God to make that choice?  Because he was going to!  They didn’t know it at that time, but God would soon choose his sworn enemy to be number 12!  It was to be this Pharisee named Saul!  And they had no idea how great a leader he would be in the early church!  Jesus chose an unlikely person on that road to Damascus, just as he chose unlikely people by the lake several years before!  And again, in all this, they had no idea what was about to happen!

But what about old Matthias?  It’s always been interesting to me that we never see his name again!  Was he not part of God’s plan at all?  As one author put it, “Acts never says that the choice of Matthias was a mistake.”  The disciples believed they were doing what was right.  But he definitely wasn’t what God had in mind for number 12.  And we never do hear from him again.  Although “tradition” has it that he was part of the early church, and he did help to spread the new faith.  But I wonder about this story.  Should they have waited for God’s timing?

The timing of writing this sermon was a little different for me this week.  I actually started thinking about all of this before I heard Pastor Kari’s sermon last week.  I don’t usually do that!  I’ve learned to wait to hear her, because I’m always inspired by what she says.  But this time it was different.  This time I had already been formulating my thoughts, and I was pleasantly surprised when they were right in line with what she was saying!  It’s amazing how God works sometimes – if we’ll just let him!  And that’s the point here, isn’t it!  Sometimes it’s hard to wait for God’s timing!

If you remember, Kari’s sermon last week was about God being “enough,” or “all sufficient.”  She pointed out that God doesn’t always solve our problems or end our pain.  And he doesn’t always do things how or when we expect him to!  She reminded us of the story of Abraham and Sarah, how they waited 20 years for God to fulfil his promise to them.  And then they took matters into their own hands!  They waited long enough, but then their patience ran out, and they tried to force God’s hand!

That’s often the result of impatience, isn’t it?  I’ve entitled this sermon, “When patience runs out.”  And when patience runs out, what do we do?  Well one thing we do is what Abraham and Sarah did.  We start to try to do God’s job.  We start to try to force his hand.  And, like them, it never works out, does it!

Sometimes faith means moving forward boldly.  But sometimes faith means standing still long enough for God to act!  And sometimes it’s hard to know which it is!  But I find myself drawn more and more to this Old Testament idea of “waiting for the Lord.”  “Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength!”

Now, I’m not saying any of this is easy!  But I am saying it’s important in our faith.  And I’m saying that it doesn’t happen all by itself.  This is something we have to work on!  Because the natural human response tends to be one of impatience.  “Lord, give me patience – but give it to me quickly!”  The natural human tendency is to respond with tension and anxiety, rather than calmness and peace of mind, or “trustful expectation.”

But, like the disciples here in Acts one, if we have the patience to wait for God to work – in his time – we’ll be amazed what he will do!  Here in Acts, instead of restoring the kingdom to Israel, God sent the Holy Spirit, and he began the great age of the Church.  We’ll talk about that next week on Pentecost!  It was more than they could have imagined!  And instead of choosing Matthias, he would choose Paul, one of the greatest advocates for the faith ever, and the author of much of our New Testament!

So, I’d like to leave you today with the words of the psalmist.  Be thinking about these words, and what this means in your life.  “Wait for the Lord.  Be strong, and let your heart take courage.”  “Yea, wait for the Lord!’

Prayer

Eternal God, help us to wait for you.  Help us to know that you are, among other things, all sufficient for our lives.  Help us to grow in the fruit of the spirit, especially patience.  Help us to trust you in all our ways, that you may direct our paths.  For we pray in our Savior’s name, Amen