Be Patient

When our kids were little we loved to sing along with tapes whenever we were traveling in the car. One of the songs went like this;

Be patient, be patient
Don’t be in such a hurry.
When you are impatient
You only start to worry!
Remember, remember that God is patient too,
And think of all the time that He has had to wait on you!

It is a catchy little verse and the truth is that even now that our children are grown with children of their own, that little song still sticks firmly in my head!

Webster’s dictionary says patience is “calm endurance of hardship or annoyance or inconvenience or delay”.

And it is this very thing, PATIENCE, that seems so important to God. We are told to bear fruit with patience. It is by our patience that we will gain life. We are to have patience in hope, and pursue it, knowing that faith produces patience. The list is fairly impressive and the bottom line is that God wants us to have it and anyone who reads the stories of His children in the Bible can attest to the fact that He even produces opportunities for us to learn patience in all kinds of creative ways!

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As Christians we are often encouraged to journal. That usually comes through various sermons or seminars or conferences. But for some reason the purpose of journaling seems elusive. I mean after all who has the time? And besides surely we will remember all God has done for us.

Well I have come up with a really, really good reason to journal: it gives us the rest of the story. Through a journal you can read about a crisis and then pages (or journals!) later find out how it got resolved. It helps us see that God can ask us to be patient because He is at work whether we realize it or not!

For instance, I have written more than a hundred times throughout the years words that shout crisis! Here are some from Big dream Ministries:

“We have no money and I don’t know where we will get any.”

“NO ONE is buying The Amazing Collection and our warehouse is full of product!”

“We have a shipment coming on Friday and no place to put everything!”

“ We need personal testimonies for the next four books and there is no “story” in sight!”

Well I could bore you, the reader, with many, many more such outcries but I will spare you. The point is that I DO have a journal and I can read forward to see how the story ends. And in every case, the great and terrifying crisis turned out to be just another opportunity to trust Christ. And in the end (never early) He brought about more than we could have ever imagined.

So for the rest of the story:
We received almost two million dollars in four years that paid completely for production…just in time.

Today hundreds of churches and small groups across the country are doing the study.
And we have had to reorder workbooks over and over again to keep up with the demand.

A warehouse came available only a mile from the office….just in time.

And of course every book ended up with a fabulous personal story as the “story teller’ showed up just in time.

Patience. When I read the end of the stories it grieves me that I EVER worried. It was a huge waste of time and energy for sure. There was so much hand wringing and sleepless nights…..instead of simple joy that all was in the Savior’s hands and He would lead the way and provide.

So that is a great reason to cultivate patience. It basically says, “I trust God and He is faithful”.

As I write the above words it surely seems easy. But sometimes the battles are huge. My nephew is battling cancer at the age of 42. My friend is struggling with a rebellious daughter. And we have many folks that we love dearly who are out of work. There is much to worry about.

UNTIL I read a few pages of my journal …. and then I remember the song,

“Be patient, be patient
Don’t be in such a hurry
If you grow impatient
you only start to worry…..”

I don’t know how God will resolve the issues at hand but some day I don’t want to look back and see that much time and emotional anxiety was wasted because I did not trust that God is good, and He is faithful and He is at work, and that He has heard my prayers.

He simply says, “Be patient”.

But let patience have its perfect work,

that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

James 1:4