Devotion

Pentecost and Patience 

"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." — Acts 2:1–4

Before the wind rushed in, before the fire fell, before anything happened at all — they waited.

The disciples had been told to stay in Jerusalem. They didn't know exactly what was coming or when. They simply gathered, trusted, and waited. And on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit arrived in a way they could never have imagined.

We live in a world that hates waiting. We want fast answers, instant results, and quick fixes. But God often works in the waiting. Patience — one of the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 — is not passive or weak. It is an active, faithful trust that God is at work even when we can't see it yet.

Patience can feel especially hard. Waiting for the result from a task or test, for friendships to grow, for things to get easier, for  purpose to become clear — it can feel like nothing is happening. But consider the disciples in that upper room. They didn't know what the wind would feel like, or that fire would rest on their heads, or that they would walk out of that room changed forever. They just showed up and stayed.

Patience is showing up and staying, even when you don't know what God is about to do.

This Pentecost season, be encouraged. The same Spirit that rushed into that room is alive and at work in your life. Your waiting is not wasted. God is preparing something — in you, through you, and for you.

Is there something in your life right now that you are waiting on God for?

How can you "stay in the room" — keep trusting — even when it's hard to be patient?

Prayer

Dear God, 

Teach us to wait on You with faith and not frustration. Fill us afresh with Your Holy Spirit this Pentecost season, just as You did for those first disciples. Help us trust that You are always at work, even in the quiet. Amen.

Blessings!

Will Wallace

Principal