Patience

Luke 8:15 "But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience."

Luke 21:19 "By your patience possess your souls."

II Thessalonians 3:5  "Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ."

Dear Lord,

It seems that You are emphasizing one theme repeatedly in my life over the past few hours.  Patience.  

None of us likes it when patience becomes the virtue of the day in the divine classroom of life. I don't like it. It feels disciplinary! But I yield to the convicting pressure of Your Holy Spirit's insistent instruction. This truth is apparently my need.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Impatience makes for division... Impatience disrupts community... it is a failure in the testing of faith... But our patience depends not upon people, but upon Jesus Christ and his patience on the cross. He bore the impatience of all people and so can forgive them... How little importance we attach to constancy, firmness, and faithfulness! In the Scriptures they are right at the top of the list." (from A Testament to Freedom, 444).

Lord, I want to live in unity, faith, and love with Your Body.  Teach me enduring patience as a witness of a life lived with self-giving love and generosity to my brothers and sisters. I want to reflect Your character of patience.

I have always liked the lines from Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a wood, 

and I--I took the one less traveled by, 

And that has made all the difference.

Chris Lohrstorfer: "We think it's romantic to take the road less traveled. No. The road less traveled is hard. That's why it is less traveled. The easy way, though, has lots of traffic" (There's No Place Like Home).

Patience.

John Maxwell: "God prepares leaders in a slow-cooker, not in a microwave oven. More important than the awaited goal is the work God does in us while we wait. Waiting deepens and matures us, levels our perspective, and broadens our understanding. Tests of time determine whether we can endure seasons of seemingly unfruitful preparations, and indicate whether we can recognize and seize the opportunities that come our way."

Patience.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "The freer we are from ease and indolence and personal claims, the more ready we shall be for patience."

So, Lord, everything I am reading over the past two days repeats Your one word sermon of love to me: "Patience."  

I confess that I need Your gift of patience in my marriage, my home, my work, my worship, my quiet time. I hear You saying that any defense of my impatience which says, "That's just the way I am" defies Your aim and desire to transform my character more into Your likeness.  I love You. I need You. I want to be like You.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.