PATIENCE'S WORK

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Joyce Meyer makes the comment in "Battlefield of the Mind" that:

“We like everything instantaneous. We have the fruit of patience inside, but it is being worked to the outside.

Sometimes God…uses the difficult period of waiting to stretch our faith and to let patience have her perfect work.

…let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. (James 1:4 ASV)

The truth of the matter is that God’s timing IS perfect. He is never late.

The tricky part is to TRUST HIS TIMING.  Right?

And that takes a LITTLE WORK on our part.  

Something we are not ‘overly’ anxious or accustomed to doing, but something we MUST do!

“Trust is not a passive state of mind. It is a vigorous act of the soul by which we choose to lay hold on the promises of God and cling to them…” - Bridges.

So not only are we called to BE PATIENT.  We are also ENCOURAGED to EXERCISE patience!  No passivity will do!

Yikes!

Regardless of the circumstances, the adversity, the challenge or the pressures, we are to patiently CLING to the promises of GOD.  That paints the picture in my mind of maybe hanging from a cliff or gripping a railing during an intense wind.  In other words it can be a little scary, a little exhausting and a little precarious.

But GOD says that in the struggle a WORK is being done IN US by the THINGS outside of us.  To make things even tougher, we don’t know when the reel is going to run out or when the chapter of challenge is coming to a close. 

We are just to trust it will.

We are to trust that GOD knows BEST.

I was driving back from Lancaster late yesterday afternoon.  I got behind 2 farm implements from Lancaster to Circleville adding 30 minutes to that portion of the trip.  When the time was right I passed them both only to encounter an even BIGGER John Deere distraction from Circleville to Washington Courthouse tacking on another 40 minutes to the commute.

Thus I was late to where I WAS going.  My agenda was altered.

But as GOD often does, he used the delay to give me the time to chat with a “friend of a friend” needing help with heroin treatment options as well as a sister of an addict desperate to engage her family in helping her dying sibling.

Without the “delay” maybe I would have not had the chance or time to chat.

Who knows?

But GOD knows.

Just as Joyce eludes, we are an “instantaneous” lot; especially when life is going sideways or our agendas are being delayed.  It is in those moments that we have to INTENSIFY our TRUST in the TIMING of GOD.

We have to remember HE is sovereign.

We have to remember that His WAYS ARE HIS WAYS; His TIMING IS HIS TIMING.

We have to keep in mind…

…that to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good. (Romans 8:28 PH)

Catch that?

EVERYTHING that happens FITS!

“God is sovereign, He is able to answer. Because He is faithful to His promises, He will answer.” ― Bridges

Do you have something you are waiting on today?  Something that NEEDS an answer?

Is your patience being tested?  No relief in sight?

Is GOD’S timing frustrating you?

Let patience do its thing.

For…

…under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work… (James 1:3 MSG)

GOD’S GOT IT!

Have a blessed weekend!

I love you ALL!

FREEDOM CHURCH (CHAMPIONS NETWORK)