Growth Requires Patience

By Robert A. Schuller

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." – Psalm 119:105
Learning and growth take time. Insights come here and there, one at a time. "Full perfection" doesn’t come all at once. But how impatient we get. When it comes to getting direction and counsel for our journey, we want the whole loaf every time we sit down at the table instead of drawing our nourishment from the daily bread God provides.

Think of what Psalm 119:105 tells us, "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." This verse is almost a cliché in Christian circles today, but it is the truth nonetheless. In the time this verse was written a tiny oil lamp would illuminate only a few feet ahead at best.. The writer had no concept of seeing all the way down the path at once.

But in our day we’re not content with just a few feet; we want to see the starting line and the finish line at the same time. I have a friend who is sixty years old and has been a believer since the age of twenty. During those forty years he has chronicled five specific "Eureka!" periods in his life, all of which led to years of reflection and application before the next one began.

Each "Eureka!" experience in life has been vitally important to him and has shaped his understanding of himself and his relationship with God. But look how slowly they came – on average, one every eight years. And he is convinced there will be more of these experiences as he continues to follow the path God is laying out before him.

Anyone searching for God's path for his or her life must be willing to walk in the light God gives today, confident there will be more when it is needed.
Truth over time is God's way of bringing us to spiritual maturity.
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Lord, give me insight as I read Your Word. Remind me when I get impatient with the process that learning and growth take time. Help me to walk in the light You give me today, and to hold onto the confidence there will be more light when it is needed.
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