Patience

Romans 5:3b-4,  "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character and character, hope."

Psalm 37:7a,  "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him."

      Often we frustrate ourselves.  In a society where mail delivered by the postal service is called "snail mail," patience is in very short supply.  And yet it is obvious from Scripture that God prizes patience, perseverance, endurance.  There are at least two good reasons why patience is a difficult characteristic to develop.  First, we don't want to be patient.  We want what we want when we want it.  We want our own way on our own timetable.  Second, the way we develop patience is by practicing it in adversities, and nobody wants to go through hard times.   We greatly value our comfort and convenience, but God values character, and character comes through through patiently enduring difficult circumstances.

      It takes patient endurance for us to accomplish many of our goals.

  There is an old proverb that says you must wait for an egg to hatch if you want the chicken.  You will get nothing if you crack the egg too soon.  The farmer must wait for the seeds to sprout, to grow into plants,and to produce the crop before he can harvest.  If he digs up the seeds before they have time to grow, mature, and produce, there will be nothing to reap.  Think of Moses tending sheep for his father-in-law for forty years before he led the Israelites out of Egypt.  David was pursued by Saul for years before he became king.  And Joseph was sold into slavery and unjustly imprisoned for some years before he rose into prominence in Egypt.  The years of adversity were not wasted.  God was preparing each of these men for the special assignments He had for them.

      Most of us want to pray,  "Lord, please give me patience, and send it right now!"  Hymn writer Phillips Brooks said,  "The hardest task in my life is to sit down and wait for the Lord to catch up with me."  Often we have to wait for God to catch up with our plans and desires, and we can either wait impatiently or patiently.  Think about it this way: our impatience reveals our dissatisfaction with God and with the way He is directing our lives.  Our patience reveals our trust in God and in his plans for us.

Father, may I wait patiently for You to develop character in me and carry out the plans you have for my life.  Amen. 

Life's Little Frustrations

There's one thing in the fall that has me hopping.

This is when I start my Christmas shopping.

It might seem to be too early in the year,

But, before we know it, the time will be here.

You may find this hard to believe,

But my husband used to ask me on CHRISTMAS EVE

This amazing question--"Well, my dear,

Do we have any gifts for the children this year?"

Divine Romance

1 John 4:9, 10, 16,  "This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.....And so we KNOW and RELY on the love God has for us."

I enjoy reading romance novels where boy and girl meet, become acquainted, fall in love, and at the end of the book declare their love to each other and marry.  However, there is always some obstacle to their love at the beginning of the book, and this forms the suspense part of the story.  Often the problem is that the boy and girl, although secretly crazy about each other, do not know whether they are loved in return, so there are doubts and fears and misunderstandings until the end of the book.

If we could know only one thing about God, it should be that He loves us.  He has written us love letters in His creation, in His Word, in His invitation to come boldly to His throne of grace and converse with Him about our needs, in His daily provisions for us, and, above all else, in Jesus' death on the cross.  We have no reason to ever doubt God's love or to fear evil from His hand or to misunderstand His intentions.  We can have complete confidence in His love for us as we give our love to Him in return.

Father, I pray for us in Paul's words from Ephesians 3:17b-19,  "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  Amen.

Life's Little Frustrations

I'm out of supplies and I need some more,

So I must go to the grocery store.

Which part is hardest?  Is it loading the cart,

Unloading, putting up, or just getting a start?

Perhaps the most difficult part of it all

Is the price we must pay as we make our haul!

Rejoice in Today

Psalm 118:24,  "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

      Summer is my favorite season of the year.  I love its casual, relaxed, laid back feeling.  I always have a sense of sadness and loss when it is over.  Certainly fall is fun, with the crisp air that energizes us to step more briskly, the excitement of football season, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  But I dread the thought of January and February, with cold, dreary days, long nights, and runny noses. 

However I am determined this year to have a welcoming attitude toward all the days ahead and be open to all the things that each one of them brings.

      After Bob Tweedy was paralyzed as the result of a fall, he and his wife Carolyn started each day by saying together,  "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice ad be glad in it."  They chose to rejoice in their circumstances.  They recognized the fact that each new day is God's special gift to us and received it as such.

      Our joy and peace do not depend upon the season or the weather or our circumstances but upon the presence of God with us, and He is there for us through all kinds of weather and all kind of circumstances, through every season of the year and every season of life.  We can always rejoice in Him.

Father, may we be grateful for each new day You give us and rejoice that You will walk through it with us.  Amen.