BEING PATIENT

Colossians 3:12 (NIV) “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

CLOTHE (def): To cover as if with clothing.

PATIENCE (def): Tolerant and even-tempered perseverance; the capacity for calmly enduring pain, trying situations.
PERSEVERANCE (def): continued steady belief or efforts, withstanding discouragement or difficulty; persistence.

You have no doubt heard the statement “I want patience Lord, and I want it RIGHT NOW!” While this is meant to be a joke, it is many times not far from the truth. In this ‘instant’ society we live in, where waiting for anything is considered a “bad” thing, we struggle to grasp the significance of the word patience.

Here is another opt repeated statement: “Anything good is worth waiting for.” In the realm of sight it means one thing, but in the realm of the spirit, it means something entirely different. With the former, we more than likely have that which we desire in our sights and are just waiting to accumulate the money to purchase this item. Perhaps a new car or a new home. Or perhaps something not quite as expensive, like a new stereo or new television. We know these things exist because we can see them; we just can’t afford them right now. In the realm of the spirit, those things which are ‘good’ are NOT seen and cannot be touched or tasted. Faith is required to wait. Patience is much more difficult in these situations because we have to work at it. Our world has conditioned us to expect an instant return for our efforts. And we all know that it is harder to believe in something that you cannot see, touch or taste, let alone have the patience to wait for it to transpire. We know all the scriptures that tell us God is never late, but rather right on time, every time. We understand that He will leave us or forsake us. Yet there is something about believing in the unseen that unnerves us at times.

God exhibits patience in dealing with His creation. Since He made us from scratch He knows everything about us; our thoughts, our words, our actions … even our inclinations. What’s amazing about God is that He knows these things about us prior to us thinking, saying or doing them. He exhibits patience as we stumble around trying to figure out what He wants from us, all the while trying to interject our own plans into the middle of His will.

The more time we spend with the Creator, the more like Him we will become and one of the characteristics He desires to pick up from Him is patience. It is a by product of having faith and trust. Let me put a different spin on my first statement from above: “Anything that has eternal value is worth waiting for.” Now THAT is a truth worth remembering.

WALK WITH THE KING TODAY AND BE A BLESSING!!