Daily Devotional: BE!
Day 26: Be Patient
If you have been listening to my Devotionals for any length of time, I can imagine that you were wondering when I would get around to “Be Patient” — and so, here we are. The moment has arrived, and now you can relax. You have been patient.
You may have heard the prayer, “Lord, give me patience, and give it to me now!”
Well, He has already given us patience as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the Book of Galatians, chapter 5:22-23 we find these words written by the Apostle Paul — who in his life went through some things, and learned patience by experience.
I am reading today from the New American Standard Bible [NASB] :
“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Let’s imagine that we are building our house on the Rock, Jesus Christ, and the first foundation is love, the second is joy, the third is peace — we are feeling pretty good by the time we get to the fourth floor, right?
The elevator works, by the way, because with God all things are possible, so I would say, yes. It would seem that patience ought to come easy.
And yet…even with love, joy and peace in our hearts, we still, like children on a long car ride, sometimes say, “Are we there yet?
How come it’s so far? I’m thirsty. I’m hungry. I gotta go.”
I did that as a child, and my children did that when they were young, so I imagine others have had the same experience.
And when we have prayed for a long time about something, we find ourselves asking for patience more often, for the outcomes we desire. I know I am not the only one.
But I remind us today that patience is a gift we have already been given, and we have been given a measure of faith to live in the Kingdom of God, with God as the Orchestrator of all things good in our lives.
So….faith, hope, love, patience and trust, we could say, are the five fingers of God’s Mighty hand at work in our lives that we need to hang on to with tenacious faith through our valley, our everyday experience, or circumstances, or our goals.
Remember, He never lets go of us. He is completely aware of what we face on a daily basis. He is interested in our journey, and in every aspect of it, and listens attentively to our thoughts, and our prayers, and our words of faith, so that He can jump on the vehicle we create with our faith, and fly with it — building what we desire.
Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you, and when I come, I will take you to be with me where I am.
But in the meantime, He comes to live with us where we are, by His Holy Spirit, and He is intimately acquainted with our struggles, our worries, our triumphs, and our aspirations. God said, even in the Old Testament, when people were still living under the Law of Moses — I have good plans for you.
Nothing, and no one can take you out of our Father’s hand. Nothing and no one can thwart His plans for your good Kingdom experience with Him.
So, back to patience. Patience is deeply entwined with faith and trust in a loving God Who wants the best for us.
When we know we are loved we can wait on God’s best timing for us.
A child waiting for a promised event, or gift, or reward, who doesn’t wait very patiently because they are excited, has trouble waiting. I get that. That’s normal.
But as children of our Loving Father in Heaven Who has Never once broken His promise to bless us, let us wait patiently knowing that it is coming, and nothing can stop the answer to prayer from coming, but our own doubt that God is that good.
God is that good. Believe Him.
