Patience!

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

Patience! Have you ever asked God to give you patience? “Lord, give me patience, and I want it right NOW!” Patience! It’s one of those things you can’t learn by reading up on it. It is a quality that you acquire by tenacious, persistent practice. And if you are like me, it is a discipline you must rehearse time and time again.

My computer’s dictionary defines patience: “the ability to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry, upset or murmuring.”

OK, that struck me. First, “to accept delay without murmuring…” I blew that one three times the other day when I was in a traffic jam on the freeway. Be honest now; who among us can tolerate traffic jams! Rather than using the times for a spiritual encounter with God, I chose to stew, unable to quench the inner fumes of impatience.

A second thing that struck me was submission to the divine Will. A Christ follower is often called on to deal with troubling circumstances or people that require him/her to submit [be patient with] God’s providential Will—often to minister in some special way.

We can do it with God’s help. Remember, we have His love; and love is, FIRST OF ALL, patient (1st Corinthians 13:4).

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 2nd Peter 1:5-7