Posted on 02/20/2017 8:08:36 AM PST by Salvation
One of the most common frustrations in the spiritual life is the fact that God often makes us wait. Many of our requests are made with an elevated sense of urgency. Frankly, we are in a big hurry about many things—but God is not. Although He could fix every problem in an instant, He does not, and He has His reasons for this.
While the reasons for God’s delay may be somewhat mysterious, we can certainly understand some of them. For example, any parent knows that giving a child whatever he wants precisely when he wants is to spoil him. Learning to wait is beneficial. It humbles us, keeps us vigilant, helps us to clarify our desires, and aids us in developing self-control.
In last week’s Office, we read a tract from St. Augustine, in which he beautifully described another reason that God would have us wait:
The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not yet see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.
Suppose you are going to fill some holder or container, and you know you will be given a large amount. Then you set about stretching your sack or wineskin or whatever it is. Why? Because you know the quantity you will have to put in it and your eyes tell you there is not enough room. By stretching it, therefore, you increase the capacity of the sack.
And this is how God deals with us. Simply by making us wait he increases our desire, which in turn enlarges the capacity of our soul, making it able to receive what is to be given to us.
So, my brethren, let us continue to desire, for we shall be filled! (Tract. 4: PL 35, 2008-2009)
St. Teresa of Avila said something similar in her seminal work, The Interior Castle. In her reflection on the fourth mansions, she introduced the first stages of contemplative prayer:
I remember a verse we say at Prime at the end of the final Psalm; the last words are: “Cum dilatasti cor meum”—“When Thou didst dilate my heart.” … [A] person must have dwelt for a long time in the former mansions before entering these … [otherwise] all occasions of gaining merit would be withdrawn, were [the soul] left continually absorbed in God. [This is] the difference between sweetness in prayer and spiritual consolations (The Interior Castle, Fourth Mansions 1:3-5).
In effect, she is teaching that one rarely reaches deeper prayer without the necessary waiting, as God leads us through the stages of the purgative way (mansions one through three). We must wait and cooperate as God does His work to purify us and enlarge our heart to receive the gift of deeper prayer. And even once deeper prayer is attained, it cannot be all sweetness, for then merit and further growth would be lost.
God must increase the size of our heart, but this takes time. If we are faithful, waiting brings about yearning. To yearn is to increase our desire and to enlarge our heart. This prepares us for the greater gifts God wants to bestow upon us.
There are many reasons God has us wait. Allow St. Augustine and St. Teresa to teach you one important reason. Let God enlarge your heart through desire. Only then will it be big enough to enjoy the full extent of what He is offering.
Wait for the Lord.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
He thinks he’s my Gastroenterology doctor?
Seriously, the flip side is how can God be so patient?
I know personally that I tested him to see how long he would look out for me like a worried father regardless of what I did.
He did it for 20 years before I ignored ALL of his warnings and advice, and paid a heavy price.
Then I patiently waited for him to help me out of the boat I got myself into. And he is slowly but surely answering.
Though I dont deserve it.
Trump!!
Well said!
Why do we HAVE to wait 45 minutes for it to cook? ... is the same question
A dumb question
We don't HAVE to wait ... we just do because it just takes that amount of time to accomplish a task
Don't want to get into particulars. Just that more than ever before, I'm doubting that God is hearing my prayers. If He ever has at all.
Waiting builds our character
Anyone who tries to enclose God in a simple answer to a question beginning with ‘Why does God’, risks the wearing of a dunce cap.
Bump!
11.You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
http://www.themostholyrosary.com/15promises.htm
If the catholic believes this, why the worry when God doesn't answer...or for that matter...why bother God at all??
It's why the roman catholic churches beliefs on Mary are false.
**Seriously, the flip side is how can God be so patient?**
So true.
And why are we so impatient?
God has three answers:
“Yes”
“No”
“Not now”
Seems like I get a lot of the “Not now” answers.
1. My son, forget not my Torah; but let your heart keep my commandments:
2. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to you:
3. Let not grace and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet* of your heart:
4. So shall you find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man:
5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding:
6. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths:
* luach (לוח) is also the word for a calendar.
Write grace (chesed - lovingkindness) and truth on the calendar of our hearts.
That's what people do (makes notes on their calendars), so they don't forget stuff.
let your heart keep my commandments..
Appointments with the Golden Rule. They should be written on everybody's internal calendars, that way they won't forget.
President Trump reminds the press constantly of the importance of loving-kindness and truth, but they are not taking the message to heart. Those folks only want to make dates with lies and hate.
God is love and love is patient, but sheesh...
Great post.
If productive citizens must suffer the slow-motion bureaucrats, how patient must God be to wait for humans in general? And the humans are the ones impatient for God to act?!
Are we there yet? ;)
Never Forget To Laugh
God is hearing your prayers. Sometimes the answer is “Wait, be patient”. He is preparing us for a higher calling, either in this life or the next.
I think it’s because we really can’t grasp how prayer works. There’s no scientific equation to figure out how many prayers and how much sincerity equals how much time you have to wait for something. Or maybe God will decide that he has different plans than answering that specific prayer. I don’t think our Brains can comprehend fully many of God’s Mysteries
The wait is worth it for us spiritual beings having a human experience....
Look to the Bible for the answer....
Because it builds endurance, character and hope...
We wish for answers in our time... but without the process... we will not change.
Joseph. The way his life played out is for all of us to see.
Sold into slavery at age 17.
Falsely accused, sent to prison.
He interpreted the butler’s and baker’s dreams when he was 28, but the butler forgot about him, so he didn’t get out of jail for another two years.
Then he became prime minister just like that, at age 30.
13 years of “random” misfortune, and for what?
It was yet another 9 years before he was reunited with his father and brothers (7 years of plenty, then two years into the famine).
22 years apart. All had to do with timing, bringing the brothers around, and saving life through a great deliverance. Weird drawn out plotline but there it is.
Divine narratives are all around us. They are the real story behind the story, and there’s Joseph’s life so we know that.
Take heart. Look back and pay attention where life went weird - even or especially in seemingly bad ways. The “tell” is the multiple piling on of circumstances that shout “what are the odds?” (like with Joseph). That’s the point, to show that it’s not about “odds”, because there are no odds.
Then the order starts to be revealed. It definitely changes one’s perspective for the positive, even if the day to day circumstances are trying or downright dreadful.
I’m not even a fan of positive, happy “joy joy” when circumstances are truly miserable. Says “fake” to me, like all’s well and good until we are alone with our thoughts.
From this angle though, I could cry my eyes out, get it out of my system, but then say it’s okay, God created the whole of human emotion and knows the deal. Then life really does go on for real, on positive track, because tomorrow is another day and one day closer to wherever it is I am supposed to be. :)
patience (n.) c. 1200, “quality of being willing to bear adversities, calm endurance of misfortune, suffering, etc.,” from Old French pacience “patience; sufferance, permission” (12c.) and directly from Latin patientia “patience, endurance, submission,” also “indulgence, leniency; humility; submissiveness; submission to lust;” literally “quality of suffering.”
It is an abstract noun formed from the adjective patientem (nominative patiens) “bearing, supporting; suffering, enduring, permitting; tolerant,” but also “firm, unyielding, hard,” used of persons as well as of navigable rivers, present participle of pati “to suffer, endure,” from PIE root *pe(i)- “to damage, injure, hurt” (see passion).
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=patience&allowed_in_frame=0
Hope that helps.
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