What does Tribe teach about patience?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on patience starts with an honest acknowledgment that impatience is wired into us. Brian Simmons opened Psalm 37:34 with the plain command not to be impatient for the Lord to act, and rather than glossing over the tension, he held the room in it. People named what they felt: a culture that rewards speed, a child's expectation that faithfulness should produce fast results, and a quiet temptation to give up on a promise God has not forgotten. Brian quoted Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, California, who says that "sometimes it takes the Lord a long time to act suddenly," and used the story of Zechariah and his wife to show what that slow waiting can do to a person's faith over time.
Brian drew a distinction between knowing what God does and knowing who God is. Israel came to Him hungry or thirsty or frustrated, transactional in their approach, while Moses stayed in the tent long enough that his face showed it. The shift Brian offered was a simple one in prayer: instead of telling God what you need Him to do, ask, "Lord, what do you want me to know about you in this situation?" Patience, in this framing, is not passive endurance. It is the active work of staying close enough to God to know His character, not just His actions.
The teaching also held patience together with participation. God's promises are always guaranteed, Brian said, but they are not always automatic. Waiting on the Lord is not the same as waiting for something to happen on its own. The Hebrew behind "travel steadily" carries the sense of watching, waiting, observing, and being on guard, the posture of someone alert, not idle. And the promise that God will honor those who wait was traced back through the Hebrew to the image of the floodwaters lifting Noah's ark, God lifting, separating, and causing to grow up, the work of a father raising sons and daughters into maturity.
Taught from Psalm 37:34 · Hebrews 11:32-34 · Psalm 103:7 · Hebrews 11:11 · Genesis 7:17-18
“There are some people that have repeated their first year of Christianity for twenty plus years over and over.”
From Travel Steady Along His Path Week 3
The passage taught · Genesis 7:17-18
17 The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.
18 The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- January 23, 2023 Travel Steady Along His Path Week 3 Psalm 37 study on waiting for God, growing in obedience, and what it means in Hebrew to be honored and lifted up by him.
- January 16, 2023 Travel Steady Along His Path Brian Hunter walks Tribe through Psalm 37:34, exploring how God's promises are guaranteed but never automatic, and what it looks like to actively wait on the Lord.