Sunday, September 22, 2013

Let Patience Have Her Perfect Work


I have struggled with patience in so many ways for a very long time.  I seek God daily for it whether it is dealing with my kids, daily activities, or at work.  I am definitely one who needs more patience.  I was at work the other day and a few customers walked in, they didn’t seem to be in a hurry about getting to the counter to order their sandwiches and I will be honest, I’m not the most patient Sandwich Artist.  Truth is I like to stay busy whether it’s waiting on customers or doing something behind the scenes like prepping food or washing dishes, so having to stand and wait is hard on me.  But I stood there; I was fiddling around with the lids on the containers of food in front of me and tapping my fingers on the cutting boards a little while waiting on the customers to come order.  My boss noticed my impatience and said, “Be patient, they will come.”  My response was, “I’m not a very patient person.”  And I’m paraphrasing here when I say this but she said that I must be a very patient person because I have been waiting for that special guy to come into my life for a really long time and I’m still waiting.  I couldn’t help but laugh because maybe I underestimate myself and my patience at times.  I guess I know where my hope and trust is when it comes to getting that special guy, so it makes it a little easier to be patient.  Although, I must admit, I’m getting a little impatient in that department too. :)  But I have no intentions of giving up on God to answer my prayers because he is my hope.
 
Psalms 71:5 KJV:
For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth.

The conversation between myself and my boss got me to thinking about patience and what it really is.  When I think about patience, I think of not just prayers of a special guy, but of many prayers that I have prayed for days, weeks, months, years, and even decades that haven’t been answered yet.  But I still have faith and patience that God will answer them too.  Sure, like I said earlier, I get impatient at times, Satan lurks around the corner and says, “Girl, are you crazy?!?!” for thinking this or that is going to happen.  But if there is one thing I know Satan is good at, it’s telling a lie!

So, what is patience?  I decided to look it up in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and this is what I found. Patience is “the capacity, habit, or fact of being patient”.  So, that led me to look up the word, Patient.  Patient means “able to remain calm and not become annoyed when waiting for a long time or when dealing with problems or difficult people”.  This definition made me think of how I sometimes feel that God probably gets tired of my whining when I start to doubt things in my life.  It makes me feel like one of my kids at Christmas.  They see Christmas presents under the tree and they seem to be so impatient waiting for Christmas morning so they can open them.  I constantly hear them asking what I got them or “Can I open just one present?”  I think I tend to do God like that sometimes when I say, “I’ve been waiting a long time” or “how much longer do I have to wait?”  I guess I can sometimes see the “gift” or rather answered prayer just sitting there ready to be opened, but God seems to say, “My child, it isn’t time yet.”  So, I wait, wanting so much to just sneak a peek.  Seriously, who wouldn’t want to sneak a peek of a gift from God?  But I have to trust that the gift is just what I asked for and even if it isn’t; that it is something that I need.  One thing I learned about Christmas presents when I was a kid was that they weren’t always something I wanted, but often something I needed instead.  Either way, be thankful for every gift!

I went searching through my bible to find scriptures about patience and I found two that really stood out to me.  The first is Romans 5:1-5 KJV:
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

I don’t always see what everyone else sees when they read Scripture, but I always try to take what the Word says and apply it to my life, situation, or tribulation that I may be enduring.  When I read this Scripture, I see that the tribulations I am enduring are teaching me to be more patient and this patience brings more experience in my life which gives me hope.  I can’t tell you how many times God has worked patience in my life and this patience has brought experience as to where I’m more patient in waiting for God to answer my prayers.  Thus, my experience gives me the hope that my prayers will be answered in God’s time.

The second Scripture I found was James Chapter 1.  It is such a good chapter that I have to include it in its entirety.
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

There are three verses in this Scripture that I really love.  The first is verse 3; “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  It’s like I said earlier, Satan lurks around that corner, he wants you to lose your faith, but if you stand strong, knowing that God is there and he is going to answer your prayers, then you are gaining patience through your faith in God.  The next scripture is verse 4; “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.  To me this Scripture is screaming at me saying, “BE PATIENT, LaDawn!”  If I want things to be “perfect and entire, wanting nothing” then I have to be patient and let God have His way in whatever the situation may be.  If I want things to be right, then I have to let go and let God.  The last verse that I really love is verse 17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, to me this just doesn’t include the prayers I pray, the things I ask for, but it includes all the things that I don’t ask for, all the things that I don’t think to ask God for on a daily basis. 

I’m not sure why patience has been on my mind so much lately and especially tonight, but maybe God is teaching me to be more patient because I know I need to be.  Perhaps what I learn from my patience and gain experience which maybe will give me the knowledge to help someone else later on when they may go through the same tribulation.  One thing I do know, I want patience to have her perfect work in my life.

“Good things come to those who believe, better things come to those who are patient, and the best things come to those who don’t give up.” -Unknown

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