10
Group Questions
1. In which areas of your life does impatience tend to
surface? Give examples of situations that provoke
impatience in you.
2. Jerry Bridges says that people & situations do not
CAUSE us to be impatient or irritable. “They merely
provide an opportunity for the flesh to assert itself. The
actual cause of our impatience lies within our own
hearts, in our own attitude of insisting that others
around us conform to our expectations”. Do you agree
with this statement? Why or Why Not? Why is
understanding this perspective so important?
3. Read Genesis 16:1-6. How were Abram & Sarah
impatient? What were the results? What should
they have done instead?
Impatience
A strong sense of annoyance at the
(usually) unintentional faults and
failures of others.
It is often expressed verbally in a way
that tends to humiliate the person who
is the object of the impatience.
Irritability
The person who easily & frequently
becomes impatient is IRRITABLE.
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant, or
rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is
not irritable or resentful;
Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Ephesians 4:1-3
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you
to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to
which you have been called, with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, bearing with
one another in love, eager to maintain the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace
Colossians 3:12-13
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and
beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness,
humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with
one another and, if one has a complaint against
another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has
forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
John Piper
The opposite of impatience is not a glib, superficial
denial of frustration. The opposite of impatience is
a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to either
WAIT for God where you are in the place of
obedience, or to PERSEVERE at the pace he allows
on the road of obedience – to Wait in His Place or to
Go at His Pace.
2 Temptations in Impatience
1. To Give Up, Bail Out
2. To Take Hasty, Impulsive, or Reckless
Alternatives
Psalm 130:5
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his
word I hope;
Isaiah 30:1-3
"Ah, stubborn children," declares the LORD,
"who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who
make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they
may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to
Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take
refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek
shelter in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall
the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your
humiliation.
Isaiah 30:15
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of
Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your
strength." But you were unwilling…
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Isaiah
(49:23) – …those who wait for me shall not
be put to shame."
(64:4) – From of old no one has heard or
perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God
besides you, who acts for those who wait for
him.
(40:31) – but they who wait for the LORD
shall renew their strength; they shall mount
up with wings like eagles; they shall run and
not be weary; they shall walk and not
faint.
Charles Simeon
In this state of things I saw no remedy but faith and
patience. The passage of Scripture which subdued and
controlled my mind was this, "The servant of the Lord
must not strive." It was painful indeed to see the church,
with the exception of the aisles, almost forsaken; but I
thought that if God would only give a double blessing to
the congregation that did attend, there would on the
whole be as much good done as if the congregation were
doubled and the blessing limited to only half the amount.
This comforted me many, many times, when without such
a reflection, I should have sunk under my burthen.
(Charles Simeon, by H.C.G. Moule, p. 39)
2 Options for Responding to Impatient
Irritable People
1. Follow the Example of Jesus
2. Lovingly Confront the Person
1 Peter 2:23
When he was reviled, he did not revile in
return; when he suffered, he did not threaten,
but continued entrusting himself to him who
judges justly.
Jerry Bridges
This should be done only when you have
resolved the issue in your own heart and can
speak to the other person for his or her
benefit, not just to make your own life more
pleasant”
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant, or
rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is
not irritable or resentful;
When Do We Tend To Become
Irritable?
1. When we are PHYSICALLY WEAK
2. When we are UNDER PRESSURE
Ray Prichard
An irritable spirit tends to show up when
we’re under pressure. Most of us treat
people pretty well when we’re relaxed. But
as deadlines loom and work piles up, we
turn from Mary Poppins into Cruella De Vil
and from Andy Griffith into Mike Tyson,
except that we don’t bite off someone’s ear.
We go for the whole head.