Patience for the Here and Now

Patience has long been something I have struggled with, honestly my whole life. This struggle has left me reflecting on how I can be more patient and what motivates my patience. I encourage you to follow along with what I have concluded thus far in my life.

I want you to think for a moment and rate your patience level on a scale of 1-10. Keep that number in mind. Now think about when you are running late and you get a red light. Or when you are waiting in line and someone gets ahead when you have been waiting longer. Or the all too relatable feeling of hunger/hanger and dinner is just taking forever to cook. Think back to that number from before, would you make it higher or lower after considering some of life's more trying moments on our patience?

We live in a digital age, where there is instant gratification all around us. We have become spoiled by this world, by having limitless information and resources at our fingertips. This is rubbing off on the whole population, children are growing up in an era where the internet is the norm. So I am sure you are asking how does this relate to God?

Let's all remember those childhood Sunday school lessons or the countless sermons reminding us of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 - But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. One of those, in case you missed it, is patience. Patience is something that many of us forget about because we simply do not find ourselves waiting much anymore and when we do, our waiting is short-lived. However, if you think back to the old testament, on more than one occasion you find a prophet waiting 5 years, 7 years, 40 years or more for God to fulfill his promises. Don't you think that all that waiting involved some patience?

Of course it did! So then how can be take their example and apply patience to our lives in the here and now? Perhaps we can remember this:

Patience is not just meant to make you wait. It is meant to prepare you. You cannot be content with where you are when you are more focused on where you are not. You rob your own joy. But no matter what season you are in, God has a plan for you where you are. Your purpose is not just waiting for you in the next phase of your life. Your purpose is present, right now. In every season it is God's will that we are matured and equipped for the next. So instead of sitting around in your bitterness about where you are, use this time to grow, to mature and to make the most out of what God has in front of you.

Abraham waited 25 years for a son, Noah waited 40 days for the rain to stop, the Isrealites waited for the Promised Land and Jesus waited 30 years for his father to take him home. We have so many examples of prophets who have waited we are in good company. So I encourage you to think of ways that you can practice patience more effectively.

One last thought before I leave you for now, it is a fun little motivation about patience that I came across many years ago. " Doors in our lives close, until God opens the next door, have patience and praise Him in the hallway. "