All in Patience

Are you a driven person? Do you run at everything you do whether it is work, play, friendships, relationships, or even your faith? Are you known by monickers such as hard working, industrious, unrelenting, or other such descriptions? Being driven is a personality trait that often gets in the way of our faith. It is valued by society because we are creatures bound by time, and it lends well to works, but to God the true value is in perfection, purity, righteousness, and holiness. How do we reconcile these two ways of approaching life, faith, and eternity?

Does waiting on God seem tedious to you? Perhaps it has become this way because you have the idea that He is doing nothing while you wait, and that He continues on doing nothing until at long last, in a moment suited to His good pleasure, He suddenly cares enough to act. Well nothing could be further from the truth, and waiting should be an active effort on our part in which we watch Him at work.

The most uncertain of victories will be won by the Lord because He is great beyond measure. How patient is our faith in this; His victory? Are we waiting in total confidence for Him to act? When those around us challenge our patience in God we can be moved to take matters into our own hands, and to abandon our assurance in His promise. In such times I look to scripture and hold tight to it.

Have you given up on certain desires because you prayed for them once, twice, three times, and they were not given to you? Have you resolved yourself to the fact that God just doesn’t want you to have this thing, or that He just doesn’t hear you? Well, if you are praying rightly in the will of God and not asking Him to go against His character and Word, then neither of these assumptions are correct. Persistent prayer leads us into the very crux of faith.

Do you wait patiently for God’s provision and direction? Have you become practiced in allowing Him to do all things in your life, or does He teach you over and over again how to wait? Have you set your spiritual clock, and your expectations to divine time, the time of heaven? As the length of an earthly day is constantly changing, and our bodies acclimate to that change, we must also acclimate spiritually to the natural variation in the will of God... the day of heaven.

Are you quietly preparing yourself for those things that the Lord would have you do? How about for His return? We are so busy doing things for God, in these days and times, that we forget to plan and prepare ourselves for the Lord’s return. We often treat this world as if it were the next, but this is only a shipyard in which we are being faired, and prepared to sail.