Patience in Chaos

The Dictionary.com definition for "Patience" is as follows: 1) The quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain without complaint, loss of temper, irritation or the like. 2) An ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay. 3) Quiet, steady perseverance; even tempered care; diligence.

But when the world and everything in it, including your own life, is in total chaos, how can you find patience and rest peacefully through the chaos? Let's see what God says about patience because He is always telling us to be patient. In fact, more often than not, we have to be taught patience through the Lord because we live in a "right now" world and need to be reminded that everything isn't at the tips of our fingers. At least not the important things! First of all, it's the Divine implementation of the behavior of men. Gal 5:22 reads, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness" and that pretty much sums it up on what our behavior should resemble! The fruits of the Spirit are the best fruits to bear and patience is right in the mix! Then in Colossians 1:11 it goes right along and says, "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;" In order to endure any suffering, trial, tribulation or mountain climbing that we often have to do, patience is truly a virtue! Patience, or lack of it, can make or break the situation, not to mention your spiritual growth from whatever you are going through or waiting on. Before I continue, what happens when we are in such a rush to do something, call someone, go somewhere, juggle family, friends, events? We rush through all of it, only to find out that we are only able to enjoy a portion of it! We forget sometimes how easy it is to overextend ourselves then regret it later. The Lord gave us patience in Him for a reason and as you learn it, grow in it, and apply it to your life, what a transformation! Second of all, patience is a Divine attribute, and the character of God as found in Exodus 34:6 "The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast lovingkindness and truth." Then again in 1 Peter 3:20, we are reminded of God's patience while He waited for the construction of the Ark by Noah, "who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water." 

Patience is extremely hard to get ahold of, but when you do, you are better equipped in the next chaotic mess to wait on the Lord, for His provisions, for His guidance and for His direction. He always waits on US.....what makes it hard for us to wait on HIM? Our sin nature and our desire to have immediate satisfaction rather than delay it for the LASTING kind! Every day we are faced with some kind of annoyance, irritation, complaint or provocation and are constantly having our patience tested by either people or situations. It's much easier, and a lot less stressful, to be patient while dealing with whatever/whoever it is we are confronted with, than to put the cart before the horse. Every single time we try to jump ahead of God, we fumble the ball, we foul it, strike out and eventually lose the game. Which, in turn causes us more irritation and provocation than had we just dealt with it the way God wanted us to in the first place! It's like waiting for that perfect sunrise....you sit and watch, slowly seeing the changing of colors. You then see the tip of the sun kiss the horizon and you know there's more to come, the anticipation is building....patience allows you to make it through the entire process to fully witness the rising of the sun in it's totality! The satisfaction you get when you know you took all the right steps to witness something so wonderful is the same feeling magnified when you have patience in your life....and waiting on the Lord.

I'm an extremely patient person and I've been blessed because of it. I wasn't always that way though. It was years in the making and by my late 20's, the Lord helped me sign, seal and deliver it! I recognized patience in the general sense but in the Godly sense, not like He wanted me to be! He's an awesome God! He wired me to be laid back, and patient, ever since I can remember, but the kind of patience that was developed as I grew spiritually enabled me to withstand some pretty horrendous storms in my life! Some of which I use as witnessing tools because I did wait upon the Lord and He didn't let me down! I had to be brought to my knees, which at the time, wasn't a pleasant experience, but it paid off once He got me through the wilderness! So the next time someone irritates you, tries to provoke you or just plain hurts you, have patience! Get on your knees and find it in the Lord because what He can give you far exceeds what we can give ourselves! Be patient and wait upon the Lord....He's waiting on YOU!

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