Fruit of the Spirit: All We Need is Just a Little Patience

Anyone noticing how I've been using song titles/lyrics for my Fruit of the Spirit posts? It's kinda fun to do :) So yes, today we're continuing with our look at the Fruit of the Spirit with Patience: easily the most difficult next to love, in my opinion.

I don't know what it is, but I can't stand waiting in lines...it gives me fits, particularly at the grocery store or WalMart. Usually it's due to there being 50 billion people in line and only 1 register open. Yes, patience is definitely NOT one of my strong points: not in the grocery store and DEFINITELY not in the car, but God's working on me! So why in the world have we become so impatient? Simple: instant gratification...we want it fast, we want it now. Don't want to go to the library? Research online. Don't want to make cookie batter? There's break and bake. Just bought a computer? There's a faster one right around the corner. No time for dinner? There's the drive-thru. There's nothing wrong with speed, speed is good in some instances...but we've become obsessed with it. Think about it: Do we let God move in church, or are we constantly looking at our watches because Pastor's gone 5 minutes over? Do we spend time to talk to someone who needs it or are we too busy?

Everyone has heard this before, God's answers are yes, no, and wait. The last one stinks sometimes, right? But it's God we're talking about, remember...he's not concerned with our timeline - He knows what's going on, He has a plan! Daniel 4:35&37 says, "He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: 'What have you done?'...Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything He does is right and all His ways are just." God is sovereign, He does as He pleases because he is just...and sometimes that means we just have to wait. Why wait on God to heal you when you can get a prescription for medicine? Why wait on God when you can surely figure things out yourself? Yeah right. The patience God wants us to have takes faith, and a lot of it.

So how to we achieve this? Let's take a page out of God's playbook. 1 Timothy 1:16 says, "But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life." and 2 Peter 3:14 says, "Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him." One of my favorite Far Side comics is one where it shows God's Computer, and it's got a big button on there that says "Smite." Think about it: we are some messed up people and have been for a long, long time. There have been many a time where God could've easily hit the smite button on His computer and been done with us...I mean he did it once before, except for the inhabitants of the Ark. Further, Jesus was mocked and abused while on the earth and He chose to go through it, not to say "Enough of this mess, bye bye humans!" Nope, God's patience with us means our salvation: instead of punishing us like we deserve, He gave us the opportunity to be saved through His Son's sacrifice! And still we want everything from God, and we want it immediately and in some grandiose fashion. I've met a lot of people who have abandoned God because the very week they got saved, their lives didn't go completely perfect...and that's a shame. Colossians 3:12 says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." You see, as Christians, we have to have patience because we reflect Christ, and He is patient with us. We serve a mighty and powerful God, who can do anything, so we have to have the faith that He will do what He needs to do in our lives...in HIS time, not ours. If it's God's will, He'll do it, we need to wait on Him.

Colossians 1:10-14 says, "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." When we live for the Lord, He'll give us the endurance and the patience to put up with life. So slow things down, and practice some patience in your faith and in your everyday life, I know I will be trying. And if all else fails, look for a good, Godly, patient person and talk them up...Hebrews 6:12 says, "We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. "