PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• This is Day Four of our nine-day study of the Fruits of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
Today, we’re looking at PATIENCE.
Ah, patience.
What we want from everyone else, but what we don’t want to give.
Right?
God’s timing is perfect though, as always.
After all, this project was put on my heart with patience lined up just in time for Mother’s Day.
Moms, for the most part, are masters at patience.
I’m sure there are many who disagree with my assessment.
I certainly know how impatient I was with my son at times.
But moms are always hard on themselves.
The comparison game is alive and well in the world of motherhood…
So if you’re a mom who is reading, let’s take ourselves out of this equation.
Let’s think of our own moms, or grandmothers, or mother-figures in our lives.
Didn’t they patiently care for you when you were sick?
Even staying up all night when she had to get up early the next day?
Or teach you how to bake a pie, even though you made a colossal mess in her kitchen?
Didn’t she spend hours upon hours at the ball field, waiting for you to finish practice?
Help with homework and science projects?
Moms demonstrate extraordinary patience with their children.
Even if they don’t think so themselves.
My own mother and grandmother are paragons of patience.
I’ll never measure up to their caliber of patience.
Galatians 6:9 NLT says, “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
What an encouraging thought!
And I’m living proof of that!
For 18 years, as I struggled as a prodigal, my mom and grandparents prayed for me.
Their efforts weren’t in vain and eventually, I came around.
Parent or not, the same applies to any Christian.
When we stand up for our Christian values and grow lonely or discouraged when we pray and don’t see any progress or change, it’s easy to think, “What’s the point of continuing?”
But a key component to patience is understanding that God’s timing isn’t ours.
We may wonder if His watch stopped, but He’s never late.
He always comes through.
But He expects us to be patient and wait.
He will not be rushed.
Psalm 37:7a says, “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.”
Oh so much easier said than done.
If we stand there, tapping our foot, the wait will be frustrating.
(Watch a pot boil much?!)
But if we can wait on Him in trust, our patience grows and is perfected.
James 1:3-4 tells us, “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
Going back to moms… Seasoned moms know this truth.
And it’s their counsel to younger mothers that helps them when it feels like life has become an endless cycle of diapers and spit up.
And for mature Christians, we have the same responsibility to nurture and encourage new and younger Christians.
God’s working.
He hears us.
And if He’s asking us to wait, He has a reason.
Because His plans are perfect.
Jeremiah 29:11 is the ultimate go-to verse for that promise, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Let’s wait patiently for those good plans.
Today, as you pray, praise God for His perfect timing, and ask Him to help you praise Him during the wait.
And thank Him for the extraordinary moms and mother-figures in your life who have given of themselves, and patiently guided you through countless situations.
