Patience....Just Wait!

Today’s entry topic comes as a result of a request due to an issue a good friend of mine is going thru. In a word what is definitely needed is patience. Patience is defined as an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay. It is also defined as quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence. So basically it is the ability to deal with delay without complaining and being anxious. It is truly a very basic principal of life not just a good Christian walk. So if it is so basic why do we have such a hard time with it? The answer is easy, we are selfish! Selfish, selfish, selfish, as well as very arrogant and conceded. Now I know that may come as a harsh blow to some egos but it is nonetheless the truth. We want what we want when we want it and it doesn’t matter what has to happen in order for us to get it so long as it’s quick. We garner our relationships with people and God that way, we handle our decision making that way, we handle our money that way some much so that we’ve got a commercial screaming about it “It’s my money and I want it NOW!”

So yes we are selfish. That is the place our lack of patience comes from. A deep, dark, selfish, conceded place. It’s even worse for us Christians (so-called I might add). We believe that just because we are Christian and because we believe in the Holy Bible that we should never have to wait for our blessing ever. Oh sure we won’t say that with our mouth but we sure do with our actions and no I am not exempting myself from this. We will sit on our job wanting better (and there is nothing wrong with that) but won’t wait long enough for the instruction on when and how to move. All we need to know or feel is that it is time to go and boom we are done like a finally grilled steak. We don’t seek God’s advice about it we just go and there are even occasions that we won’t go because we are too impatient and want to know how everything is going to turn out. So we will wait even though God said go and go now. We won’t go because we don’t have the patience to endure the unknown of the journey God is trying to have us walk out toward our perfection. So we’ll sit on a job and watch as everything and everyone around us suffers because like Jonah we are in a place we have no business being.

Patience helps define your character as a believer. If you can’t go through this little bit you have to go through in your training for where God is trying to take you then how are you going to deal with the devil when he unleashes hell against you when you get to the place God has for you? If God can’t trust you to move now when He says go and go now but doesn’t show you the complete picture how can He trust you to step out on faith for something He’s trying to give you. Patience in various ways has to show itself forth in every aspect of our walk.  Here’s a harsh reality if you can’t grab patience you can’t effectively serve God. In James the 1^st chapter and 4^th verse we are told to let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect, entire, and wanting nothing.  But the way patience has its perfect work is through obedience and taking you through things designed to strengthen your patience. God doesn’t just give you patience, he establishes it in you by making you work to get it and work to perfect it by exercising it. It’s like going to the gym to lift weights. As you are lifting your body gets tired and sore. Muscles are being stretched as you are lifting weight time and again. This process can be tiring and at times painful but the thing is you don’t immediately see the results. As a matter of fact most people don’t even know their own strength until they have to use it in the real world outside the gym.

Patience works the same way. As you go through you are being stretched and strengthened. Your ability and effectiveness are being fine tuned so that when you must use your patience; for example having to be there for a family member or friend who is just determined to do wrong but constantly wants your help, it’s there for you and that with great supply.

Patience is also key to getting the blessing God has in store for you. In Galatians 6:9 we find Paul instructing us to not get weary in well doing for we shall reap if we don’t faint.  A farmer must go out to the field daily; after he has planted the seeds, to water and nurture the seed even though right now all he can see is ground and dirt. Then even after the seed sprouts forth and up comes the plant he still must water and nurture until that plant produces the fruit he first envisioned it being. This process can take years to come to pass but that farmer just can’t stop and say to hell with it. Doing so would ensure he will never have a harvest. He must exercise Patience. This is a principal key to ensuring that you allow God’s will to be done in your life. The truth that not many talk about is that God won’t do a lot in your life without you first allowing it. You must submit to Him even when His ways don’t make sense to you (cause they won’t a lot). Your submission will cause your obedience which will allow Him to develop a track record with you and that positive track record will help increase your faith which according to the book of Hebrew in the 11^th chapter without faith it is impossible to please God. All of that comes from the seed of patience. You say you trust God then be patient and allow Him to work on your behalf. You are not His first client He knows what He is doing. Trust Him, wait on Him, obey Him, and in the end you will see all that God has for you come to pass. I hope that this has been a help to whom it was intended for and to all that read it and share in this topic. Remember as always Grow in God’s Grace and Abide In His Love!