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There is a direct line between your
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ability to wait and your ability to have
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faith. We do not see this clearly
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anymore. In a world where everything is
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available instantly, where every desire
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can be met in seconds, the ancient
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discipline of waiting feels not just
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difficult but pointless. Why wait? Why
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delay? Why not have what you want now?
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But waiting is not about the thing you
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are waiting for. It is about who you
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become while you wait. When you delay
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gratification, you are practicing trust.
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You are saying, "There is something
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worth more than my comfort right now.
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There is a greater good I cannot yet
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see. I will move toward it by refusing
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the immediate thing." This is the
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grammar of faith. Abram waited. He did
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not have the son he was promised. He
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waited decades long past when hope made
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rational sense. And through that
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waiting, something happened in him. He
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moved from believing in God to believing
1:04
God. The promise was less important than
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what the waiting had made him. Joseph
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was sold into slavery. He could have
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taken Potterer's wife when she offered
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herself. The immediate pleasure was
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there for the taking. But he said no. He
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would not betray the trust of his
1:21
master. and he waited in a prison cell
1:25
for years for a promise he had no
1:28
guarantee would be kept. Why did he
1:31
wait? Not because waiting felt good. He
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waited because something in him, trained
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by discipline, shaped by the fear of
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God, told him that his integrity
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mattered more than relief. And what
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happened? What looked like years of
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suffering was actually the preparation
1:49
ground for his elevation. This is the
1:53
rhythm scripture teaches. Discipline
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now, blessing later, not always, not in
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ways we can predict. But the person who
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cannot wait for anything has not learned
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the most essential truth that God is
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worth more than the world's offerings.
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Every time you say no to what you want,
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you are saying yes to something deeper.
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That is not deprivation. That is the
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deepest form of freedom.
