Sharing: Patience makes perfect.....

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Since the beginning of time I have had the hardest time memorizing the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23. The love, joy, peace just flow off my tongue but I always get tongue tied at the fourth one. I know why. It’s the one I like the least—patience. I guess that means it’s the one I need most. Waiting for an outcome does not come naturally to me. I want action. I am a task oriented person. I want to put in my prayer and take out my answer. God doesn’t work that way. God is a God of patience. I thank God He is, otherwise how would I be able to have any kind of relationship with Him? That is never the point when I am getting frustrated with being patient. I want God to be patient with me. However my being patient with Him or others is a different matter altogether. Richard Rolle in The Mending Life, describes patience as a willing acceptance of things that are bitter. Later he adds, If you are at peace, there is no way you can know whether you are patient. This helps me understand why I get so stuck on this fruit of the Spirit. With love, joy and peace I immediately feel good. To experience the fruit of patience I need to be facing something hard and difficult. I discovered that if I am patient even patience leads to peace. It’s not quite as immediate as love, joy and peace, but it does have huge payoffs. Peter explains, “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him” (2 Peter 3:14-15). Our Lord’s patience is how we got Jesus born from a basically stubborn Jewish race, who were the cream of the crop as far as humans go. Our Lord’s patience brought us our salvation. Salvation is the one thing that we need most from our experience on this earth. It is the most important experience that any of us can have. Yes, a prerequisite to the fruit of patience is suffering. Without suffering you cannot know the fruit of patience. Yet, God’s Word explains that patience in suffering leads to being found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him. That is pretty amazing payoffs if you ask me. Well, I have experienced some bitterness recently. I didn’t like it. Rather than reacting, I responded by obeying God’s instructions to be patient. It wasn’t easy, but as I trusted the fruit of patience in my life I found myself having peace, hope, and salvation too. It didn’t come as immediately as the fruit of the Spirit brought by love, joy and peace, but it did come. Are you suffering something bitter right now? Yield to the Holy Spirit’s offer of the fruit of patience. The transition from bitter to patient doesn’t come easy, but with prayer and patience, you’ll discover what I did. Patience makes perfect.