Tag Archive | bible study on patience

PATIENCE

Jun13

We are in love with speed.  We want fast food, instant replay, immediate seating, rapid recoveries, instant coffee, fast cars, fast computers, and if one doesn’t leave the instant the light turns green, horns start honking.

Schools are designed currently with shorter semesters so people can quickly get to the major.

Many want quickie marriages and quickie engagements.  They will not wait for sex within the guidelines God has given for the most intimate of relationships.  Instead, many will have sex before marriage, and if they have an inconvenience of a child, the state will take care of that problem in a quick abortion.  In and out, fast abortion, so no one will have to know.  Except for God.

As one told me one time, he wanted to try the person out before the marriage.

Many treat their relationships as though they were a car.  “Try it before you buy it.”

And if the marriage, if there is a marriage, doesn’t go well.  There is a lawyer and a judge, for a fee, and will grant an instant divorce in one quick signing of a document.

And in another case.  A young lady, under age, left home to live with a young man, and after six months of this sinful behavior, with the permission of her parents, she’s now back home.  If history tells us anything, it won’t be long before it will happen again.

And on it goes.  We live in a society which has no patience.  We must have our desires met right now.  And when our lives wind up on the rocks, an immediate meeting with the preacher, elder or both to get an immediate “quick fix” for the troubles which are gotten into, when patience and waiting would have saved heartaches and the consequences of living a sinful and reckless life.

It is as Lewis Carroll once said:

“No, no!  The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.”

  Better to wait than to try and explain to the elder/preacher why our lives landed on the rocks from sinful living.

Patience could prevent a lot of trouble, if we would learn to develop it.  I am talking to myself as much as anyone who reads this article.

Learn to wait for a faithful Christian man or woman to marry.  Going the same direction, heaven.  And when we are married, we need to have patience with our spouses and our children.  Ultimately, when we pray to God.  Let us learn patience for the answer and not do things on our own.  Pray and wait.  He will answer in His own time.

“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:  and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”     (Ecclesiastes 7:8)

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”     (Isaiah 40:31)

“And patience experience; and experience hope:”     (Romans 5:4)

”Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;”   (Romans 12:12)
“Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.

A waiting person is a patient person.  The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.”       ~ Unknown

 Patience is very hard to come by in a society which wants everything stamped with ASAP.  God is the ultimate in patience with us.  We too must develop this trait which is part of the fruit of the spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance:  against such there is no law.”     (Galatians 5:22-23)

“A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.”   ~ Savile

 Eileen Light

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I want it now!

Dec9

“I want patience, and I want it now!” This is a common human frailty that many of us need to work on.

Slow internet connections, getting to a doctor’s office on time only to be asked to wait an hour or two, and planting a seed knowing it will take months to bear fruit; all are tests in patience.

Then there are the larger challenges like serious illnesses or relationship issues.

Now that it is Springtime according to the calendar, I watch my little baby vegetables and flowers as they sprout their initial cotyledons (embryonic leaves) and then later the true leaves.

Observing the little sprouts as they emerge from the soil under the grow lights is exciting! It’s a little bit nerve-wracking with the realization that they need to be three or four feet taller before bearing their delicious bounty.

“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful” (Job 5:7-11 NASB).

This seed-sowing endeavor is a good method to grow my patience, which is actually a fruit itself (Galatians 5:22). It is planted and nurtured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I can only imagine his care in growing our patience!

My tomatoes are now being carefully tended under a grow light. The way plants are designed, they will grow toward the light source so that they can accomplish the photosynthesis that gives them strength to survive and to thrive.

I am “cheating the system” in a way, because I want tomatoes before they are naturally ready in Tennessee. My earliest tomato was April 30, 2 years ago -– with some hothouse-grown plants that were already blooming when I bought them.

These little tomatoes surely won’t be ready for harvest in April, but I’m hoping for the luscious red delights in May. The grow lights will allow them to get enough light in the day to grow as naturally as possible without turning long and spindly.

Without the adequate light that they normally would get later in the season, the little seedlings would grow tall and leggy, with little foliage. The plants would employ natural growth habits that would cause them to rise above nearby competing plants to get to the sunlight.

Of course there is no competing growth in the neatly planted flats, but they don’t recognize that. They do what they were designed to do. The early introduction of artificially produced long daylight hours will allow them to develop strong stems and plentiful leaves, since they won’t feel starved for light and seek it out up higher.

While the gardener may not be patient enough to wait until August for tomatoes, the plants exhibit patience in growing in the way they are designed, with or without an added boost of a gardener’s care.

It is a lesson for us to use the resources we have, and to be content with them as we strive for better.

by Christine Berglund @ www.forthright.net