Patient Faith – Enduring Hope – Unfailing Love
Patience is one of the hardest challenges I am faced with everyday. Waiting has been on my heart lately and I have really been challenged to just trust God and have complete faith in Him. Waiting is just one of those things that we as humans struggle with. We don’t like waiting to eat, we don’t like waiting in lines, we don’t like waiting for trains to pass. We don’t like waiting! Patience offers the solution to this problem though and I think it is more then what people get out of when they hear the saying “Practice patience, it’s a virtue”. There is a different kind of waiting then just waiting for the normal things in life, there is waiting on God.
I think some of us have this idea that when we pray God will answer our prayers in our time frame and in the way we have planned out in our head. God doesn’t answer our prayers based on when we think we need Him to though. For the most part He doesn’t even answer prayers in the way we expect He will. Our God is a God of love and patience and He wants us to not only practice patience with those around us, but also with Him. Patience is imperative to having faith in God and faith is vital to pleasing God. With out faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). If we are NOT patient in His timing and we take things into our own hands, we have lost faith in God’s remarkable ability to answer our cry and we have lost the trust that binds us to Him. Having patience is having faith.
Patience is hard when I’m waiting on God. When I’m not in control of things I tend to feel like if I take matters into my own hands things will go better. In reality though, that’s not always right. We all have our own way of doing things and we all have our reasons for thinking they’re better then any other reason, but who are we kidding when we try and pull that with God? God is truly an amazing God in how He answers our prayers and responds to our needs! When we are patient with God, He hears our cry and is faithful. God provides! Impatience is the signal of doubt. When we are impatient with God it means we don’t have faith that He is going to provide what we need from Him. Patience with God comes into play every single day of our lives. Patience is needed when talking with people, it is needed when we are praying and it’s needed when we are teaching. Patience is something we need to carry with us every second of every day.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. –Romans 8:22-25
Life gets really hard sometimes. When tragedy strikes and the rain starts coming down, the foundation you build is essential to the fortitude of your faith. And just like the wise man took the time and had patience in building his foundation on solid ground, we need to have patience as we build our foundation on the solidity of Christ. The discipline we receive from God is out of love not out of anger. No discipline we receive is pleasant at the time, but extremely annoying and sometimes painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who endured it. (Hebrews 12:11) Through the hard times in life we need to remember to be patient and endure, because God will pull us through them. Every trial will build us up as we endure and become patient learners of God’s grace and mercy.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
Romans 8:22-27 (Read the “Message” version)
(This is an interesting way of looking at how patience builds us up. Yes, waiting is both extremely hard and long sometimes, but the produce of our patience is stronger faith and deeper trust in Christ! We end up with more then we even dreamed of and God’s ultimate plan is brought that much closer to completion) – Note on the message version.
“The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” –
-Zephaniah 3:17
God loves us so much! His love endures forever and with patience we will learn to love and live like Jesus did. Don’t get discouraged in waiting, but practice patient faith, knowing that God will provide. No matter how long the wait no matter what the struggle, God is with you and rejoicing over you. Patience isn’t just endurance, it’s faith! Patient faith!
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” – Psalm 27:14
Loved it! Are you going to study theology when you go to college? Diane