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Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Against such things there is no
law.
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October 18 Fruit of
the Spirit - Patience
Just about everyone would confess to needing
a bit more patience at times when we are in line
at the grocery store or stuck in traffic.
Unfortunately patience is a hard thing to learn.
The only way that we learn patience is by
being in situations that require patience.
A youth pastor once prayed for patience.
What he got was Travis, a teenager with ADD
whose mother and father were on their third and
fourth marriages. He had to learn patience
in order to deal with the teenager and the
problems that he brought.
Patience isn't just about hardships and
learning to endure them however. Patience
is about accepting the that fact that not only
is God in control, everything is done according
to His timing.
When we become impatient, we are really
telling God that His timing isn't good enough
for us but instead He needs to act right away.
Obviously God can't be bullied into doing things
according to our timetable.
We need to relax and accept the bumps in the
road that slow us down from time to time.
God can use things appear as obstacles to us for
His glory. The apostle Paul spent several
years in jail instead of evangelizing like he
would have wanted to. But it is from that
time that we gained several books of the New
Testament.
The next time patience is required, ask
yourself, "What is God trying to teach me from
this situation?" |
