Too impatient for faith …

In a fast-paced world with answers served up as quickly as a Google search, we’ve become too impatient for faith.

That’s because a mature faith takes the work of plumbing the depths of its source:

“So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ,” Romans 10:17.

As we navigate life, we want quick refreshment for our souls, much like the person traversing a dry, barren desert just wants an immediate sip of water. But a quick sip never satiates. In their book, “The Edge of Adventure,” Keith Miller and Bruce Larson share a tale that emphasizes meeting the real need rather than the felt need …

The following letter was found in a baking-powder can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across Nevada’s Amargosa Desert: “This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There’s enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about one-fourth and let her soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You’ll git water. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. (signed) Desert Pete. P.S. Don’t go drinking the water first. Prime the pump with it and you’ll git all you can hold.”

How many of those who read such a note do you think just quickly drank from the bottle instead of following the instructions so they can get all the water needed to fully satiate their need?

How many of us might take in a snippet or two of scripture during the week instead of making time to drink deeply from God’s Word?

We need soul-satisfying faith (“… it is impossible to please God without faith …” Heb. 11:6a), which means we need to exercise the patience to continuously hear that which grows our faith. The result is greater than a well in the desert …

“Jesus replied, ‘If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water … Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life,'” John 4:10, 13-14.

“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart,'” John 7:37-38.

Do you have the patience for faith? Are you drinking deeply from God’s Word?

Scotty