 |
| Heceda Lighthouse [Photo by: Yadni, Inc.] |
Patience is a work perfected with practice and discipline. Without patience, we cannot inherit the promise of pure joy. Having patience is a requirement to seeing our faith fulfilled. It is the proof of fruitfulness, the ability to hold on our faith with the assurance that we are sincere and faithful in our walk with the Lord. Patience allows our faith to endure, that no matter what lies ahead we will never give up what we have earned as children of God.
“Patience is cheerful, or hopeful, endurance, constancy:” Cheerful is when your heart leaps with joy or with the calmness of peace. Hopeful is when it is manifested with excitement and the outlook of success is inevitable. Endurance is when we are able to withstand hardship or stress, i.e. calmness in the midst of a storm. Constancy is when we are sincere in fulfilling our own purpose, being loyal, and faithful.
The most time-specific driven person I have ever met is my husband. Seconds, minutes, and hour is important to him. Planning a family get-together or an outing is to me the most stressful thing to do. I can deal with pesky people at work. I can deal with meeting deadlines and doing three projects at one time, but dealing with my husband’s quest for time management is unbearable. I do time management but I always give myself leeway on everything – at least 30 minutes in between. For my husband, missing time is hard enough, waiting for a person is worse. Do I have the patience to deal with my husband? At first, none all! Can patience be learned and developed? In due time, yes, because “a man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense” Proverbs 19:11.
Patience is one of those things that many Christians do not have – especially the patience to wait for patience. We should know that the more we understood our salvation, the more we can grow spiritually and waiting for patience is not longer an issue, because if we are in Christ, we already have patience. The ability to walk in patience is strictly up to us. We have to recognize that being with Christ patience must be highlighted within us. Keeping patience will set us free and cause us to have assurance in the midst of chaos. The ability to experience the joy of patience comes with the acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit being present in us.
In Christ, we let patience have its perfect work that we may become perfect and complete lacking nothing [James 1:4]. How can we become perfect when we lack patience? So how can patience have its perfect work if we do not have it? If we do not have it, then God would be unjust in telling us to let it have its perfect work. Wouldn’t He? Our God is not unjust. He has provided us all that we need to do whatever He has called us to do. We have it. We need to understand that if we do not yield to it, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
God wants us to succeed, that is why He is telling us to let patience have its perfect work, because if we will not let it patience will not have its perfect work. In the contrary, we are too stubborn at many times to yield to Him. We are conformed to the sights and sounds of the world that prompts us to rebel against God that can spoil the plan of God for us – in our lives. It takes our full cooperation with God to bring His will to pass in our lives, for God will not override our will. He gives us the freedom to choose our own free will.
If you are not a person that has allowed patience to have its work in you, you must know that it is not too late. You can start right where you are, just as so many of us have had to do and begin the process. As I’ve already said, this takes our cooperation. He has not left us hanging, He is always there to help and show us the way. Let’s start by looking at where patience comes from and why it is so vitally necessary to fulfill God’s purpose and inherit the promise. There is a pay off for God’s people, who through faith and patience stand fast in His promises. If He didn’t want us to receive it He wouldn’t have told us to let it have its perfect work in us. He has invested an incredible amount to redeem us and see us restored to His perfect creation, so let’s cooperate with Him. We cannot do it on our own.
For those who do not think they have patience let us refresh our memory with what James said in James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James is saying that the trying of our faith is what produces patience. In Galatians, patience is mentioned as one of the fruits of the spirit which God has given us, yet as His children, this fruit has to be developed. In all things, we do not start out as a perfect and mature Christian, we develop into one. We have the right to say that we are complete in Christ, but we also have to learn to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit to acquire the fullness of our inheritance. This requires a great deal of patience in our part.
We cannot have the patience produce in our lives or any other fruit for that matter if we are unwilling to put down the flesh. We cannot walk in the spirit if we allow our fresh to dominate us. Walking in the flesh and not living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit impede our assurance of receiving the inheritance. One aspects of patience is to endure the test with confidence, not just to endure but knowing full well the outcome.
The purpose of patience is to follow God’s will because God has a purpose and a destiny for eacone of us and if we want to see His will and purpose fulfilled in our lives. With that said, let‘s have the power of patience in our lives. Let patience be perfected and see the completion of God’s work in us. In essence, let Hebrews 6:11 be a reminder to us all: “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Let's start practicing patience as a discipline and a commitment to oneself!
