AGAPE patience
Impatience is an opportunity.
Frustration can show up on any section of Agape Trail. Let’s get past it – quickly! Haha. It can blindside us, or we can see it coming a mile away – doesn’t matter. It can be an avalanche or a hangnail – doesn’t matter. What matters is that impatience is an opportunity for Holy Spirit to fix that section of Trail in your soul.
Yes, un-crucified flesh hates waiting. Crucify it. Take a deep breath and exhale…
The Lord is with you. Working eternal plans.
Discomfort – Complaint = Patience.
In a frustrating / uncomfortable situation:
- Remove complaining.
- Surrender leadership.
- Be still. Trust Him.
- Look around. Listen.
- Where is the Lord working? Join Him.
When my heart and mind are still before the Lord, I can wait.
“…for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me,” Philippians 4:11-13.
What the Lord is doing in and through me while I wait, is more important than what He’s waiting for.
As Fruit of Holy Spirit, Patiencegrows as the Lord is given room in your soul. Allow Him. Use this challenging section of Trail to merge your will with His and Patience will grow!
A GPS message guides you back to Agape Trail: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him…”Psalm 37:7.
Will you take the assignment?
The Lord is very patient. What is He waiting patiently for? For you to welcome Him into THAT situation with you. Don’t worry, whine or agonize – they lead directly to evil. Stop. “Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil” Psalm 37:8.
- Remove complaining.
- Surrender leadership.
- Be still. Trust Him.
- Look around. Listen.
- Where is the Lord working? Join Him.
How profoundly different Holy Spirit’s will is from my fleshly reactions!
Your GPS sends: “Jump off the throne! The LORD’s will, not yours.”
Ouch! Aren’t you glad He’s patient? Again. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”
BE STILL.
Not angry, frustrated, discouraged. BE STILL before the Lord. Reset your soul to “wait patiently for Him.” He is working all things together for good.
The Lord is very patient.
Holy Spirit is knocking to enter that place and declare victory. Will you open the door? “Wait patiently” goes with “be still before the Lord.” Is the LORD what you are waiting for in every situation?
After “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him,” comes “…fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices” Psalm 37:7.
My reaction always indicates my current level of faith.
When your heart and mind are still before the Lord, you can wait. Rehearse the Love God has for YOU, and Joy naturally grows, opening Peace. Patience flows naturally from Peace. So tap into Love. Love leads naturally to Joy. Joy leads to Peace. Peace leads to Patience.
Take your focus off the situation and “BE STILL before the Lord…”
GPS Calibration Key: Recognize: I am the journey.
As painfully hard as it is, as long as it lasts, the safest way to stay on the path is always Faith.
Yes, your un-crucified flesh hates waiting. Crucify it. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” Luke 6:23-25.
“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold” Leonardo da Vinci wrote, “for if you put on more clothes as the cold increases it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner, you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.” Put on patience.
GPS Calibration Key: Waiting is the practice.
Let this soak in: What the Lord is doing in and through you, while you wait, is more important than what you’re waiting for.
Invite Holy Spirit. Invite learning. Invite growing.
Waiting is built into the lesson plan. Embrace it, or… be continually frustrated.
You may be being asked to trust God in your life like never before.
The Lord renews my strength in waiting: “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength…” Isaiah 40:30-31.
Just because I am in a hurry doesn’t mean the Lord is.
All must learn, in hopeful humility,to trust. For the Lord is patient and wants us to be like Him so we can reflect His image and His glory – not ours. Patience always comes before great fruit. “Be still and wait patiently for the Lord.”
PRACTICE:
Here are three lessons we can apply from the “Waiting Rooms” of life:
1. Trust that God IS in control, ESPECIALLY when it seems that He has forgotten us.
2. Learn to be still before Him. (Every major figure in the Bible was forced to wait long periods of time before God brought them to a place of success. They had to learn how to BE STILL before Him.)
3. Lean on God while waiting. Clean the inside of the cup, remove the log from our eye, soften the clay (Mt 23:25-26, Lu 11:39 and Matthew 7:3-4, Lu 6:41-42 and Is 64:8.)
Waiting IS one of the hardest things we can do, but when we find the refreshing streams of Hope we can wait well. What God does in us while we wait – if we let Him – is as important or even more important than what we’re waiting for.
Deep breath! “Be still and wait patiently for the Lord.”
When the LORD and you are ready together, He will provide.
