The Importance of Patience

1 Corinthians 13:4 (NET) - Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up.

I consider myself a patient man.

Lately, circumstances beyond my control have been trying my patience.

I won’t bore you with details because that might be misinterpreted as complaining.

Being human, I cannot help but wonder why so many things seem to have gone awry.

I can speculate and come up with dozens of potential reasons as to why it appears as if my patience is being tested.

In the end, speculations are all they will remain.

What is important is the one thing I can control.

How I respond.

Just how will I respond?

Will I get angry?

Will I choose to give up?

Will I act without thinking?

Not one of these options is good.

These options are not ‘responses’.

They are ‘reactions’.

If I allow myself to get angry, I will be allowing the situations to get the best of me.

If I allow myself to give up, I will be admitting defeat.

If I allow to myself act without thinking, I could very possibly take a complicated situation and make it even worse.

So how am I to respond?

I cannot put it more eloquently than one of my favorite old hymns did.

Take It to the Lord in Prayer.

That is my first step.

I must then make myself open to His leading.

Once His leading is revealed, I must be willing to follow His leading.

Finally, I must continue to be patient.

I must remind myself that things happen according to God’s timetable, not mine.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NET) - God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he also placed ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives.

I must be patient with God.

Speaking as a sinner, I know that He has been more than patient with me.


Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, November 25, 2011.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, December 9, 2011.
Schedule subject to change.