It is generally obvious that life transformation generally happens gradually.  While God might give a breakthrough epiphany moment from time to time, He does His patient work of building the church all the time.  This is true on multiple levels.

We need patience with the congregation. That’s not to suggest we preach without an edge of expectancy, encouragement and even exhortation.  It is to suggest that we pray for breakthroughs, but trust God to work out His plans in each life in His timing.

We need patience with ourselves. It’s easy to respond to a small bit of negative feedback, or a feeling of failure last time we preached, and suddenly have a list of personal weaknesses that need to be fixed.  We need to patiently serve faithfully.  Seeking to improve out of good stewardship of our ministry, but trusting God to continue working in our lives at His pace.

We need patience with key people. It could be a “well-intentioned dragon” – a constructive critic in the church.  It could be a person of influence with unclear motives.  It could be an individual that requires far more energy than we feel able to give.  We must pray for wisdom, for strength, for patience to not make rash moves at our speed that miss what God is doing at His.

I am by no means affirming ministry weakened by low expectation, unimproved by lack of personal growth or unnecessarily hindered by a motivation-drain unaddressed.  I am simply reminding myself and us all of something I was told fifteen years ago: “God walks at 3mph.”  Let’s keep our gaze on Him and serve, even live, with prayerful patience.