"Trey Tuesday" - May 26, 2015

Patience

Have you planted any seeds this spring?  Have you gathered the vegetables or flowers yet?  Of course not! :)  It takes many days/weeks/months of patiently nurturing the seeds, the soil, the water, and the temperature in order to successfully and properly grow healthy, fruitful plants.

Why do we get so anxious in all other areas of our lives?  Why do we not understand that we cannot have absolutely everything NOW!?!?  We can't be rich and good looking and popular and well toned and organized and...fill in the blank.....instantly and all at once!  And we most certainly cannot have all the bad and painful parts of life instantly taken away!  War, death, sickness, abuse, poverty, and neglect do not evaporate at our wish or prayer.  Even for the most devout Christian.  God still has us wait.

God's Word has some pretty rough illustrations regarding patience.  They are not always the words we want to hear when we are struggling or grieving or in pain:

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer"  Romans 12:12
"Love is patient, love is kind"  I Corinthians 13:4

Job questioned patience amidst his horrific trials, "And what is my end, that I should be patient?"  Job 6:11

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."  Ephesians 4:2

Wow!  What a lineup!  How is this humanly possible!?!? 

Aha!  There is the defining word:  humanly.  It is humanly IMpossible to be patient while you wait!  Patience is a fruit of God's Holy Spirit working in your life.  It is God's work - not yours.  Even if life doesn't make sense, plant the seeds of your life (relationships, health, job, money, etc.) and nurture them with healthy habits. Then rest and have patience in God's timing.  Rely on His Supernatural power!  :)

"For Thou art my patience, O Lord: my Hope, O Lord, from my youth"  Psalm 71:5