"So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."
(1 Corinthians 3:7)

I am often dealing with my patience. I have raised myself in a lifestyle of instant gratification. I am used to seeing time and effort yield almost if not immediate results. I have never been one to set out on a long term project and wait until the very end to see and enjoy the results. I usually break it up into smaller projects and celebrate each milestone. That way I can see the results of all the time and energy that I am putting into the project. When I decided to give my life entirely over to Christ and follow Him on a daily basis, I had to change my way of thinking about time.

See oftentimes we are called to pray for someone. It would be great if we all had the gift of healing and we could witness instantaneous healings every time we prayed for someone. Or if we were praying for salvation for an unsaved family member, it would be awesome if the moment we prayed lightning came down from Heaven and the accepted Jesus wherever they were doing whatever they were doing at that precise moment. It would be even better because we would only have to pray just once and not have to agonize over their lost soul. Sometimes we are called to pray in the Spirit and we don't even know what we are praying for. That is real hard for me. Sometimes I ask God when I will be through. What is taking so long. I have often questioned my ability to pray. Maybe I wasn't praying hard enough or loud enough or wasn't saying the right words. When we work for God and doing His will, We have to learn to wait on Him to accomplish what He wants done in His perfect timing. He will eventually turn our work into and effect and into and outcome. But it has to be at the right time. I can look and see that I am doing everything that I think I should be doing. I am saying all the right things and praying all the right prayers. Sowing seeds into people souls. Ministering to people who I think need to be ministered to. I can be doing all these things and still not see and fruits of my labor in their lives or in mine. It would seem that I was doing everything a good Christian should be doing.

I have come to realize that God sees the big picture and I am just a piece on the game board. I have learned that God has His own measure of time as well. Thinking of my situation like I was a farmer it all makes sense. If I was ready to plant my new season of crops what sense would it make to do things I wasn't supposed to. What sense would it make to fertilize the ground before the seeds were sown? What sense would it make to break up the ground and prepare it for planting after the seeds were sown? What sense would it make to plant a summer harvest in the fall? If I were to do these things I wouldn't see any return in my investment because I would have done all the wrong things and possibly ruined the crops. It is the same principle with working for God. If you don't do what is asked of you and do everything else you think needs to be done then you do it all in vain. You can sow all kinds of seeds into the souls of people and sure you might be a good person for doing it but you do it for yourself. If it is not something that God doesn't see as needing to be done or it is not in the time frame of His plan then He is not going to grow the seed. It wont matter how much you sow or how much you nurture it, you don't have the ability to make it grow. Only God does.