Don’t say, “I will get even for this wrong.” Wait for the Lord to handle the matter. —Proverbs 20:22

How difficult it is for our flesh to sit and wait! This proverb implores us not to take matters of revenge into our own hands and say, “I’ll pay you back for this!” God’s pace of justice is far slower than ours. He is long-suffering and full of grace, while we, on the contrary, are quick to judge and swift to repay. David said, “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14). Had Abram waited on the Lord for his miracle son, he would not have ventured into the fleshly union with Hagar (Genesis 16). The result of his impatience remains with us today in the ongoing problems in the Middle East. The two lessons we must learn in order to obtain a promise are faith and patience (Hebrews 6:12). A large part of faith is simply refusing to yield to the thought that God somehow will be late. Though he may have felt nervous on the outside, David stayed confident on the inside. He waited patiently for God to act and said, “Yet I am confident that I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).