There is beauty in patience, because it requires you to wait on the Lord. We come from a society that is instant gratification based. If something takes longer then our patience will allow, we move on to something else. That same societal norm has also infiltrated our relationships. I am not just talking about the boy/girl relationships but ALL of them; friendships, parents, teachers, bosses, you name anything that requires any type of relationship and you will find that instant gratification will be found in some way or another.
Dating? They don’t do all the things on your list, so just move on.
Friendships? If you make me mad, and do something to me that I don’t like; You just lost my friendship.
Parents? My parents just don’t listen to me, so I will not listen to them. Or the other way around, my children are just being disobedient so I will just make their lives miserable.
Teachers? How can they give me so much work? Can’t I just have my degree?
Bosses? I don’t like the way my boss does things, so I will just move companies.
The list goes on and on, life situations that we brush off because we are not patient enough to work things out.
Now I will have to admit, being in ministry I get to work with a lot of people. I deal with a lot of problems and see a lot of people making bad decisions. My first reaction in my head can be at times, STOP IT, GET OVER IT and MOVE ON! Which is needed sometimes… But immediately, thoughts will pop into my mind about the ultimate example of patience. God’s Patience!
Looking back at my life and all the stupid things that I did, I know God could have looked at me and said ” Trav, you are an idiot!” And because of how bad my sinful ways were, he could have poured down his wrath on me. But He didn’t, I was forgiven of every one of my sins, and because of His patience… 21 years later, I gave my life to Him and was a changed man. Even to this day, He shows patience with me because I still make mistakes. That simple reminder of His patience on my life, gives me the understanding of how I also need to be patient when it comes to others.
The bible tells us that Love is Patient. So if we truly want to love somebody then we need to be patient with them. Not just once, not twice… but always. When we are patient and wait on the Lord through whatever circumstance you may face, it says “Yes Lord, I will Trust you, I will wait on you because you know what is best.” If we are not willing to be patient, then we are either going to miss out on the blessings that God has for us, or try to manipulate our own will into that situation.
For most of us, this is extremely difficult to do because we want things now. But sometimes God will put us in situations to be patient, to work out our character and prepare us for what He has in store. You could be going through something right now and on the verge of giving up, but don’t do it. If God is calling you to be patient, stick it out and the blessing will be beyond your imagination.
Love is Patient!
