Instant Gratification?

"Deep spiritual growth is far from a super highway; it’s more like a dirt path through a thick jungle. Encourage, pray, and be patient." - Matt Chandler

I so often want instant gratification...

...like having my 10-day-old son's bottle from the fridge warmed to room temperature in only five seconds would be great... especially when his cries grow louder and louder...

...like having my laptop boot up in under five minutes... for a 12-second response to a on-call issue at 3am...

...like expecting that a quick prayer will be answered instantaneously, rather than in God's timing...

I have often heard it said that the Christian life "is a marathon, not a sprint." The apostle Paul confirms this in Romans 5: "3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." The writer to the Hebrews confirmed that our race is not a sprint in Hebrews 12:1 where he stated: "let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."

Patience is a virtue, and a tough one to live by.