Praise God for Patience!!!

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Today's Passage: Romans 2: 1-16
Memory Verses: Rom. 2: 3-4

For those of us who think the topic of the fruit of the Spirit is something too well-known and obsolete to be relevant to today, this blog is for you. For the past couple of years, God has really done a work with my patience, especially where my children are concerned, To top it off, He's been ministering to me in such a personal and supernatural way everytime I get in His presence. Tuesday night is another prime example of how in touch with us God really is, bringing us from glory to glory as we allow ourselves to obey Him more and more.

So I go to sleep after an awesome night of ministry at praise choir rehearsal (we've officially stopped calling them "rehearsals" because of how mightily the Lord moves in our midst), and wake up on just Day 2 of being back at school, only to discover that someone has taken the well-ordered world I dreamed of all summer long and flushed it down the drain. My resolution to get to school on time begins to fade as I go back and forth with my 9-year-old son, who's been given an assignment that he didn't really read properly. Now he's lost the sheet with the instructions on it, and he can't seem to understand that I'm getting even more upset by the fact that he's not seeming to care if it's done right or not.

Needless to say, I lose it. By the time it's all said and done, my voice (which I was determined not to raise over 2 inches since I had planned to walk in gentleness and kindness from a blog or two ago) is 90 decibels too high, and he's in tears. Desperately, I cry out to the Lord to forgive me for allowing myself to lose my patience. I KNOW I'm not perfect, but it seems so difficult not to set a high standard for my children to follow. Finally, I'm ready to accept the fact that, as long as I'm in this flesh suit, I'll always need to be reminded to walk in the Spirit, and I'll always need His help in producing His fruit.

Finally, I see all over again how awesome God is, since He's perfectly perfect in all things, yet He holds back His wrath even when we go astray. I realize how easy it would be for Him to "lose it", especially with those who gave their lives to Him in the past but turned away, not having had the faith to finish the race. And as I get back into my place of humility once again, remembering not to judge those who don't seem to have it all together yet (including myself), I say a prayer for my brothers and sisters who need God's loving Hand to guide them home. How blessed we are that He's a patient God!

Prayer: Father, although the lesson of needing patience is not an easy one, I thank You that You take the time to teach it to me. At my most miserable moments, when I think I have nothing to work on, You remind me that I haven't arrived yet. I just want to ask for forgiveness once again for having such a short memory, for it was not too long ago that You exercised patience when You waited for me to respond to Your lovingkindness. I ask You now to continue to draw the ones who've not yet responded to You, praying that the Holy Spirit will draw them just like He did me. And the glory will be all Yours. In Jesus' Name, Amen.