...And We Wait - 1 Cor 13 & Psalm 40

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he turned to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 40:1

Love is patient, love is kind.

1 Corinthians 13:4

Patience.

Everybody wants it - but very few have it.

The virtue of patience by definition is: the ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay; quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence.

 I don't know about you - but I certainly wouldn't describe myself as someone with the ability to "suppress annoyance when confronted with delay". 

I can be rather easily annoyed when things don't fall exactly as I expect them to fall. 

I often will press forward even when all signs are pointing to me to delay or wait. 

I am a "doer". I am not a "wait-around-and-see-er". And my patience - my ability to suppress my annoyance - generally comes out like a two-year-old waiting for a promised toy - kind of whiny and loud.   

But what we see in today's two passages is that God wants us to display patience.

 Patience is equated to love and being godly.

Patience is being ready for the Lord - but not demanding anything of Him.

Patience is knowing that the Lord will fulfill His promises - but in His time.

All of this sounds wonderful - until you have to be patient and wait for God to move.

When we are in the middle of a struggle - even when it is a good struggle toward a completed class, a new athletic accomplishment, a new job or some other fantastic new opportunity - we often want God to shove us through the struggle so that we can get to the "good stuff".

We don't like having to take the necessary steps or waiting the appropriate amount of time to receive the gift of His blessing. We want to move and to move immediately.

But God requires us to wait - to be patient - because in being patient we are displaying the trust and faith we have in Our Heavenly Father.

Our ability to be patient - even in the most mundane and most trying of circumstances -  demonstrates our willingness to put our lives in the hands of the Creator. 

Paul wrote that love is patient - not because we need to wait for love but because love in its purest form is filled with faith and trust. Faith and trust are the foundation of our ability to display patience even in the worst of days.

Let's try together to be patient and wait upon the Lord. We just might be surprised by the wonderful  blessing He has for us - one we may have missed if we pressed through or tried to do it our own ways. 

Be patient. Wait upon the Lord.

It's not easy - but it is totally worth it.

Psalm 40 

1 Corinthians 13

Quote

Patience is the companion of wisdom.  

St. Augustine

Question

What are you waiting for that is requiring an extra helping of patience?

Finding the Patience of God

Patience.

Wow... I know Paul writes that it is a part of the fruit of the spirit and King Solomon wrote that wisdom leads to patience, but on a regular basis I feel like patience is a gift I will never receive.

There are several, slightly different definitions to patience:
1. the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like. 
2.an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay

3.quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence:

Hm mm... I don't know about you, but each of these definitions convicts me. I rarely display any of these qualities - I often complain about delays; I can be quick to lose my temper; I can become annoyed when life doesn't go according to my plan; And even when I persevere I tend to complain in the midst of pressing on!

Despite all of my failings, I still have a deep desire to be a person of patience; to be someone who reflects God's care with the world.

Can you imagine if God displayed our level of patience?

How would He react to the mistakes and the sin we fall into everyday?

God's patience is much deeper than any one person's, but it isn't infinite. He suffers through our missteps, misdirections, and misguided judgements. He endures our follies, failures, and fallacies.

But, He has told us that one day He will judge the world. His patience - His suppression of annoyance and temper - will run out and He will come to judge.

Until that day, we are called to live our lives reflective of the love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self-control, goodness and faithfulness this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God living within each of us.

Some days we will be better at persevering in spite of our condition and some days we will lose our tempers. Thankfully everyday, God will forgive each of us in spite of our missteps in patience.

I am so thankful that God's patience well is SIGNIFICANTLY deeper than mine.

Scripture

Galatians 5:13-26

Quote of the Day

“Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.”

Barbara Johnson

Question of the Day

When have you been able to show patience in the midst of adversity?

Blessing in the Waiting

"When is it going to be my turn?"       "Why don't I ever win?"    "It's not fair..."

Have you ever said these words...thought these thoughts?

Unfortunately most of us have either said or thought these phrases - or something like them - in our lives. Someone else wins the trophy; Someone else becomes prom queen; Someone else becomes class president; Someone else gets your dream job or your dream date or you dream house...

And you wonder - when is it going to be my turn?

Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,    (Psalm 37:7)

We aren't wrong to desire success or to want to achieve goals - but how we go about the desire can be wrong.

When we focus our attention on what we are not getting we miss out on what we already have. We miss out on the purpose of the time of waiting before we acheive our goals.

We miss out on our time to focus on God and His will.

God wants to give us the desires of our hearts. He wants to shower us with blessings. He is our Father and He wants each of us to find hope and joy; but He wants to give us our hearts' desires in His time.

If we place our focus on what and when we are not receiving what we want, we fall into sin. We make the want of something or some goal or someone more important than God.

If we instead focus our energy on being in the moment - on being content in all circumstances (Phil 4:10-12) - we will find the waiting can be a time of unexpected blessing. In the waiting for our hearts' desires, we grow in perserverance, strength, love, hope and peace. When we wait we learn to see the blessings of where we are.

One of the hardest lessons in life to learn is that it isn't yet your time. Patience is a virtue often desired but very rarely shown.

As a follower of Christ, you have the ability to lean on Jesus so that he will make your time of waiting a time of blessing. He will teach you the joy of patience.

Scripture

Psalm 37

Quote of the Day

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

T.S. Eliot

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.

James Campbell

Question of the Day

What is your heart's greatest desire?

Don't Forget GUMY TONIGHT!!!!