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 a single phrase from Psalm 37:34: 'Don't be impatient for the Lord to act.' Brian Zehr opened that verse to the room and let the congregation name what they already knew, that we are wired for impatience, that the culture drives us toward wanting things now, and that we carry a child's expectation that faithfulness should produce fast results. He held that tension without resolving it cheaply.
The teaching makes a distinction between patience as passive waiting and patience as active, watchful trust. The Hebrew behind 'travel steadily' carries the meaning of watching, observing, and being on guard. Brian used Bill Johnson's line to frame it: Brian says, 'Sometimes it takes the Lord a long time to act suddenly.' God does not forget his promises, but we can drift away from them quietly, the way Zechariah had, until a promise we once held feels like it belongs to someone else. Brian's response to that drift is not to push harder but to shift the posture of prayer, asking 'Lord, what do you want me to know about you in this situation?' rather than telling God what needs to happen.
Patience in this teaching is also bound up with maturity. Brian drew on the Hebrew word behind 'he will honor you' in Psalm 37:34, tracing it back to Genesis 7, where the same word describes the floodwaters lifting Noah's ark above the earth. The picture is God lifting, separating, and causing to grow up, like a father raising sons and daughters. Brian says, 'He loves you right where you are, but sons and daughters of maturity are the ones that will inherit the kingdom of God.' Waiting on the Lord is not a delay before real life begins. It is the path itself.
Taught from Psalm 37:34 · Hebrews 11:32-34 · Hebrews 12:1-2 · Genesis 7:17-18 · Psalm 103:7
“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.