Patience…Why is it so hard?
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 26: PATIENCE”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
Why is patience so hard?
I don’t know a person who struggles with patience. Even people we know who are “the most patient people on earth” or “have the patience of Job” struggle with patience. They may be better at it or maybe just have had more opportunities to practice patience.
So why is patience so hard? What follow are five reasons. They are not excuses for impatience. They are not trying to make impatience right or sugar coat it…just lay out why patience can be such a struggle for us…especially in America.
- No need to be. Inventions give us things quickly. Want an example? I typed “impatience” into google and I got 104 million results in .46 seconds. Why should I spend time in a library looking up books? Scrolling through microfilm on the topic or even cracking a concordance to find passages that talk about patience or impatience when I can get 104 million pieces of information in less than half a second? Our society prides itself in giving us things faster (think…same day delivery from Amazon, microwaves, drive through restaurants). Innovation comes online every day that make things easier and faster. We are working as a society to remove the need for patience!
- No margin – When our days are so full with work, school, taxi service, tasks, and more we don’t have time to wait. I can’t spare a minute to wait for food. I can’t wait for a person in line in front of me. I can’t wait in traffic. Really everyone should know my agenda and schedule is what is most important today…and move out of my way!
- No results – I diet for a day and the scale is a pound heavier than the day before. I tried to quit smoking for an hour, but had to have smoke because of the stress of not smoking. I’ve studied more than my classmates, but not getting the grade. I’ve worked harder than others, but don’t have the success they do. Our instant gratification society tells us we don’t have to put in the consistent long work to achieve a result…we should have it NOW!
- No response – This is more spiritual in nature. Remember how patience means “long suffering” Sometimes we just get tired of waiting on the Lord. Perhaps we’ve prayed about it for days, months, years…nothing changes. No response leads us to think God doesn’t care, isn’t going to answer or just doesn’t have time for me. Here’s a few examples from the Psalms that tell
Psalm 74:10 How long will the enemy mock you, O God?
Will the foe revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!
Psalm 13:1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
- Finally, impatience comes because I have a sinful nature. My sinful nature is naturally selfish and desires the world to revolve around me at my timing – including God. So we quickly get angry and we don’t want to wait and we certainly don’t want to linger in suffering.
Lord forgive us.
The solution? You’ll have to wait…until tomorrow. But let me give you a hint, patience is a gift of the Spirit because it’s source is the Lord. The Lord’s patience is what will overcome our impatience!
Apply: Which of the five above triggers your impatience most?
Prayer: Lord we ask you to forgive us for our impatience and fill us with patience from your Spirit! AMEN.
Patience…what’s that???
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 26: PATIENCE”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
Patience…is a virtue.
“I can’t believe our food is taking so long. We ordered 5 minutes ago!”
“Would you hurry up? I don’t have all day!”
“See if google maps has a quicker route. All I see is brake lights.”
“I think they’re ghosting me.” “How long ago did you text them?” “Like a minute.”
“Those people came in after me and they are already done. What gives?”
“Be patient.” (Parent to child who wants to go to the park…now!)
Anyone here struggle with patience? Great. Come back tomorrow and we’ll address it.
We all struggle with patience. We don’t like to wait. There are reasons for that…which we will look at tomorrow, but perhaps first it’s important to ask, “What is patience?”
We “lose” it. We become “impatient.” But what is patience?
Here’s a few perspectives:
First the Oxford dictionary defines patience as this: “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.”
Second, one of the Hebrew phrases that is translated “patience” means “slow to flair the nostril.” Flaring the nostril was the picture one portrayed when they were angry. It is used of God and of people. So if one was “slow to flare the nostril” they were withholding their anger and giving people a chance to change their behavior and stave off the anger of God or the anger of another person.
Third, the Greek word means “long suffering.” Patience is not always easy. It can be VERY hard to wait for something. The time of waiting can be emotional suffering, spiritual challenge or even physical. Whenever suffering is involved, it makes sense that one would NOT want to linger in that state very long, but patience is lingering in a state of suffering for an indefinite period of time.
With these definitions of patience, it is no wonder that we don’t do patience very well on our own. Our emotions want to lash out in anger. Our survival instinct doesn’t want to linger in a state of suffering. So patience needs help outside of ourselves.
Which is why it is listed in Galatians 5:22 as a fruit of the Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is…patience.” We can not do the things of God (in this case, patience) without the Spirit of God. The great blessing in this too as we are called as God’s people to exhibit patience, we have the help of the Spirit of God to do that which God asks.
Patience is also a key characteristic of love. In fact it is listed first in Paul’s discussion of what love is in 1 Corinthians 13:4. “Love is patient.” As with so many things in the Scripture to which God calls us, patience is NOT about us. It is about another person or our relationship with God. When we are patient and avoid flaring the nostril, it is an expression of love, just like (as we will see in later devotions this week) God showed his love for us in his patience with us.
So do we pray for patience? I’ve heard people say, “Don’t pray for patience…God will give you opportunity to develop it!” So true…however, I will not discourage us to pray for patience as it is a gift of God, a fruit of his Spirit and a reflection of his love. I don’t know about you, but if it’s all that, I’d love more of it!
Apply: What areas of life are a trigger for impatience? Is it a trigger for anger? Or is it a desire not to suffer?
Prayer: Lord, we boldly pray for patience and we accept the situations you will give us to develop and mold patience within us. AMEN.
Hope…when life seems hopeless
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 25: HOPE”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
Hope when life seems hopeless.
Hope isn’t based on our circumstances. Hope is a choice based on the promises of God.
Life will have circumstances which can lead us to despair or hopelessness. But instead of choosing the path of despair, we can see suffering as a work of God not a reason to abandon God. The Apostle Paul certainly went through many life circumstance which would give reason for despair and discouragement. Yet, rooted in the reality of peace with God and a faithful God, he gives this perspective on suffering:
Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
The Apostle Peter also went through challenges both with the Lord Jesus right by him and after Jesus went to heaven. Yet, life and perspective changed when he encountered the risen Jesus. The hope meter escalated because he knew the best was yet to come. If hope is expectation of a better future, a living Jesus gives us the ultimate expectation of a better future…an inheritance in heaven. What could be better? And what could be better reason for hope when life is tough, to know in Jesus we have heaven waiting for us.
1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
What challenge are you facing in life today? Health issues? Financial issues? Relationship issues? Job issues? Have you experienced loss? Disappointment? Discouragement? What happens when you see these challenges in perspective that one day you will join Jesus in heaven? How does it help you move beyond the immediate challenge to the promises of God.
I will say that each of us will still struggle with hopelessness at times. When we do, perhaps simply reread the resurrection accounts in the Gospels or one of these passages above. Let that turn your hopelessness into hope and remember this:
Christian hope is always anchored in the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
Prayer: Lord, thank you for a living and real hope found in the life, death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus. AMEN.
HOPE…What makes it so secure?
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 25: HOPE”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
What makes the anchor of hope Jesus gives so secure?
Hebrews 6:19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.
Let’s explore this verse a bit today…
The root cause of hopelessness is sin and a broken relationship with the Lord. We live in a broken world affected by evil, people who let us down, dreams that get dashed, and desires that never pan out. We are seeking something better for tomorrow and are tempted to place it in things or people that are temporary or eventually unreliable.
So to begin to solve the problem of hopelessness, one must have a solution for sin. For when sin and its consequences are removed, one can have a true and living hope in a life eternal where sin has no more affect or consequences.
So the reason this hope is an anchor for the soul, firm and secure is because it “enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.”
Makes you feel great, right?
Probably not much, unless we look back to what the passage is referring.
In the Old Testament directed cycle of worship, God instructed the priests to build a tabernacle (tent) and then eventually a brick and mortar temple. The design of both was the same with the front two thirds being called the “Holy Place.” The high priest or priest on duty would enter this area regularly for the rituals God prescribed. The “Most Holy Place” was a perfect cube and separated from the Holy Place by a thick curtain. The Ark of the Covenant was in this room and it was off limits except one time a year when the priest would enter “behind” the curtain on the Great Day of Atonement. You can read all about it in Leviticus 16. Here’s some key verses of what the High Priest would do “behind the curtain.”
11 “Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. 12 He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. 13 He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the tablets of the covenant law, so that he will not die. 14 He is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover.
15 “He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. 16 In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the tent of meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness. 17 No one is to be in the tent of meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel.
All the rituals of the Day of Atonement were pictures of the seriousness of sin and how blood needed to be shed to bring connection and restore what sin had broken. They were a picture that pointed forward to the ultimate shedding of blood by “the Lamb of God,” Jesus when he went to the cross.
The book of Hebrews is a great book to understand Jesus’ role to fulfill and bring to fulfillment the Old Testament rituals and prophesies.
Here’s a great verse (Hebrews 7:26-27): Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
Jesus went “behind the curtain” with his own blood to bring full atonement for our sins and the sins of the whole world. Proof? When Jesus finished his suffering on the cross here’s what is recorded:
Matthew 27:50-51: And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
Jesus went behind the curtain to sprinkle his blood for the sins of all people. With the curtain gone, our sins paid for, we have a hope that is an anchor for our soul, firm and secure.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for taking your precious blood “behind the curtain” to pay for my sins. As a result, I know I stand forgiven and can always have a living hope in an eternity with you forever. AMEN.
HOPE…What makes us lose it?
Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 25: HOPE”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
What makes us lose hope?
You will have to answer this question for yourself, but I’m wondering if some of the following situations cause you to lose hope, i.e. and expectation of a better tomorrow. Here’s five that came to mind…probably because they have triggered a sense of hopelessness. (In no particular order…)
- When the to-do list is longer than the day…and the week…and the month, it is tempting to think getting on top of things will ever happen. One day grinds into the next, into the next. Perhaps what makes it worse is the tasks by time they get done are such tolerations that it doesn’t seem worth celebrating any accomplishment…just move on to the next task.
- Lack of appreciation. When you have expended your best and given your all and no one seems to care or acknowledge or thank you for it, it is easy to lose hope that your life and what you do for others really matters.
- Lack of forgiveness. We are human beings with sinful natures. We will get into conflict with others. Unfortunately at times we have a trail of broken relationships, not because we weren’t willing to work it out or forgive, but the other person is unwilling to work it out and forgive. Makes one feel hopeless that any relationship can be truly enjoyed.
- A pet sin got you again. As followers of Christ we yearn to walk in his ways and honor him in all we think do or say. But then we don’t and we feel hopeless perhaps that we are forgiven or will ever be able to overcome that temptation in the future.
- We have all experience a loss of some kind at some point in our lives. Loss of a loved one. Loss of a relationship. Loss of finances. Loss of a job. Loss of our health, etc. In times of loss, it is difficult to see a future that is better because the present before the loss was better than before the loss (did that make sense?). When what we love and care about goes away, it can lead to a sense of hopelessness.
What would you add to this list? I know there are more.
So why do these and other situations lead to a sense of hopelessness? Perhaps the common theme is I am looking to myself or to others to determine whether I have hope. I am counting on someone being 100% dependable who is incapable of doing just that. I am relying on my own strength and ability to generate a future that is better than the present. And the result?
I still have times of hopelessness.
So what is the answer?
Turn to the one who is the source of all hope. Turn to the One who knows the future before the present plays out. Turn to the One who knows you better than you know yourself. Turn to the one who loves you so much and so consistently that he knows his plans for you and all of them involve hope. Jeremiah the prophet was given this message. (We often focus on verse 11, but notice the context of it.)
Jeremiah 29:10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
There would be a time of challenge, but God would be faithful to his promise. He would gather his people back to himself.
We may not be on a 70-year exile to Babylon, but sometimes in life we feel challenged and apart from the Lord. The great reminder of these verses is that the Lord is always faithful to his promises.
Hope is the expectation of a better future.
Left on our own and focusing on ourselves, there isn’t much hope.
With the Lord and focusing on him and his promises? There is always a reason for hope!
Apply: What situations in life make you feel hopeless. What promise of God can you remember in those times to stay full of hope, even when earthly circumstances seem to speak otherwise.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for knowing the plans you have for me and including in all of them a plan for hope and a future. With you, there is always hope! AMEN.