Praxis for Patient Productivity

Praxis

For a day, a week, or whatever fits your situation, monitor your feelings as you wait in traffic or in check-out lines or for your children or at other situations that you feel ​“waste time.” Do you feel frustrated? Angry? Impatient? Ask God to help you live fully in the present.

Make a list of things that you have put off until the future — visiting with your parents, sending a letter to a special friend, reading a good book, getting acquainted with a neighbor, volunteering in a soup kitchen. Do one activity this week and one each following week, all the while monitoring and noting in your journal (if you keep one) how the exercise changes your attitude toward time.

8 Bible verses on waiting:

• Psalm 25:4 – 5 ESV Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
• Psalm 33:20 – 22 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in you.
• Psalm 130:5 – 6 NIV I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
• Isaiah 30:18 ESV Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
• Isaiah 40:29 – 31 HCSB He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless. Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.
• Lamentations 3:25 ESV The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
• Micah 7:7 NIV But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
• James 5:7 – 8 HCSB Therefore, brothers, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

8 Bible verses on taking action:

• “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” John 13:17
• “And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered.” 2 Chronicles 31:21
• “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23 – 24
• “But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:22
• “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24
• “Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.” Ezra 10:4
• “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Colossians 3:17
• “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I Peter 1:13