Luke 1:80 - Patience

Luke 1:80 (ESV)

[80] And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

When we read the stories in the Bible, we sometimes lose the time perspective. John wasn’t born and then instantly became the baptizing, fire and brimstone preacher we find in chapter 3. This little verse, one sentence at the end of chapter 1, is significant. “The child grew.” The child “became strong in spirit.” And “he was in the wilderness until the day . . .”

Time passed. It took time for that little baby to grow to be a man. It took time for that young man to become strong in spirit. It didn’t happen overnight. He didn’t rush into the ministry. He waited in the wilderness learning, growing, and preparing. Sometimes I think we get impatient. We want to rush the process. We want to be mature now, but maturity takes time. We want to be patient now, but patience grows through waiting and adversity.

What is perhaps worse than our impatience with our own spiritual growth, is our impatience with that of others. Grief takes time to process. Lifetime habits take time to change. Old ways of thinking take time to transition. We talk about transformation in Christ, but transformation is both instantaneous and a lifelong process. Romans 12 reminds us to be “transformed by the renewal of your mind.” But that takes time. In fact Romans 12:2 implies that. He continues, “be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God.” Testing is involved, and testing takes time. Neither renewal nor testing is instantaneous.

 It took John approximately 30 years to prepare for a few months of significant ministry. Maybe we could be a little more gracious and patient with ourselves and with others. Who knows what God is preparing us for.

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