Patience: Waiting with Hope

by Megan Hill

Do you find your patience running thin when you are forced to wait for a green light or a dawdling child? In a culture that strives for maximum efficiency and instant gratification, it's easy to get frustrated when we are forced to wait. We expect an apology or compensation in return for our "patience." But this is bitter endurance, not true patience. We need to be reminded of patience as God intended it and how it can bring us peace in our fast-paced world. In this devotional, Megan Hill puts patience back into perspective with thirty-one daily reflections and calls to action. It's easy to see patience as what it is not and forget what patience is. Being patient is more than just not getting upset when your restaurant order is delayed. Patience is faithfulness over time. It's the diligent practice of godliness while you wait. It is a virtue that Christ embodied here on earth, and with his help, we can understand and cultivate steadfast patience ourselves.

Genres: Devotional, Counselling, Christian

104 pages, Paperback

Published October 13, 2021

About the author

Megan Hill is a pastor’s wife and a pastor’s daughter who has spent her life praying with others. She serves on the editorial board for Christianity Today and is a regular contributor to Her.meneutics and the Gospel Coalition.

Reviews

[Caroline Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really practical and helpful devotional!

[Lacy Monahan]

“Deferred hope may be our best opportunity to learn God’s character.”

“Waiting reminds us that the things we desire are simply instruments for the purposes of God.”

“Waiting on each of our lesser desires is practice for waiting well to the end.”

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can we find the strength to wait in our restless world? In Waiting with Hope, Megan Hill presents a 31-day devotional on patience.

Looking to Christ

In just under 100 pages, Hill helps us understand patience, explains why waiting is good, helps us cultivate patience by looking to Christ, helps us cultivate patience by understanding time, helps us cultivate patience by understanding our circumstances, helps us know what to do while we wait, and helps us cultivate patience in specific circumstances.

Each day consists of a short devotional with a verse, meditation, reflection questions, and point of action. They are full of scriptural truth and practical considerations. I was most challenged to be patient because of the fact that time is short. By looking at James 5:8-9, Hill explains how we should be patient because the Lord is coming soon. This seemed counterintuitive to me, but I understand now that we can be patient because we are on the Lord’s timetable.

God is Working Through His Word

I was most moved to see how we can be patient with others because human souls have eternal value. Hill states that we often become impatient with other people because we fail to recognize their significant and lasting value. In 2 Peter 3:9, we learned that God is patient with us – not wishing that any should perish. I am resolved to have this perspective.

Towards the end of the book, Hill shows that we can be patient in stagnant seasons because God is always doing work through his Word. In 2 Timothy 2:9-10, we see that the Word of God is not bound. I am encouraged to work with resolute steadfastness, waiting with hope, knowing that time is in God’s hands.

I received a media copy of Waiting with Hope and this is my honest review.

[Marjorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Convicting, encouraging, and helpful devotional that examines patience from every possible angle—highly recommend.

[Eli Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never repetitive and offering multiple angles on what patience is, why we practice it, how God is patient, and how we practice it in different circumstances, this 31-day devotional is both digestible and encouraging

[Lacey Lieberman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great tool in learning more as we grow in Christ and practice patience. Megan Hill does a great job of giving multiple scenarios of how we are to grow in patience and wait with steadfast hope in Christ matched with scripture to encourage the reader. It was a great reminder that though we may fall short daily, we are called to persevere until we are in Glory with the Lord and he will not leave us to do it ourselves!

[Paul Tautges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Megan Hill skillfully employs Scripture to help us see the myriad ways impatience shows up in our hearts. Most importantly, while rooting the virtue of patience in the longsuffering of God, and fueling our sanctification with gospel hope, she helps us to see what putting on patience looks like in the practical ins-and-outs of daily life.

[Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Steadfastness is faithfulness in difficult circumstances. In other parts of his epistle, James explores ways that such steadfastness is essential to the life of faith: The steadfast person is better able to act wisely (1:5-8), to withstand temptation to sin (1:12-15), and to practice righteousness (1:19-25).”

[Madeline Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like Contentment: Seeing God’s Goodness, Megan Hill’s Patience: Waiting with Hope came at just the right time for me! I could read it again next month and he t even more of it…it’s just that good.

[Nichole Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patience, patience and more patience

So good. Thank you to the author for putting this together. I'm planning on reading it with my singles small group. We all need to learn to wait and trust that God knows what is best and when is best. 😊

[Cassie Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patience is a virtue, but man is it hard to be patient. Sometimes we feel as if we’re missing everything while we wait on God, but what if the waiting in itself is important? This devotional looks closely at patience, as displayed in the Bible by those well-known individuals like Jesus, Paul, and Abraham. Patience and endurance are very much needed in today’s world, and if you want to learn more about what God says about patience, I cannot recommend this devotional enough.