Possession 3: Patience

Patience focuses my vision

“An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains.”  Dutch Proverb

“Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”  (Psalm 37:7)

“They that wait upon the Lord…” (Isaiah 40:31)

My wife gave me a small coin engraved with the image of an eagle with its wings spread and the location of one of God’s promises to us, “Isaiah 40:31.”  On the back of the coin reads the following:

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings as eagles.  - Isaiah 40:31

I am looking at the coin right now.  I try to carry it with me always.  It gives me hope and confidence.  It encourages me to follow.

The verse from Isaiah also gives me hope.  It tells me that I will mount up with wings as an eagle.  And because I have that hope I do not worry… as much.  I would be a liar if I said I never worry.  We all do.  Learning to wait on the Lord, learning to be patient casts away the anxiety.  It helps me to focus on the moment, on the day.  The bible says that there is plenty to occupy us today, we needn’t worry about tomorrow!  When we defined anxiety, we called it “jumping the gun.”  Our emotions get the better of us and our reflexes get out of control.  But anxiety is not just about today, or the moment we are in.  It is about tomorrow and wanting to get there before it comes.  Anxiety says, “I want that now” and “what if such-and-such happens?!”  We try to look too far ahead, not from a planning perspective, but from a selfish one.  We want something now that we are not ready for or supposed to have yet, and in doing so we lose our focus of the day.

When we talked about trust, about that moving forward with confidence, I specifically contrast it to “waiting on Him.”  Why then would I be focusing on this waiting now?  I spoke of trust as an active verb rather than passive.  I will speak of waiting the same way.

Waiting on the Lord is not standing still... it is keeping pace.  Patience is not not doing or sitting idle.  It is sitting with the enging idling... it is moving when He moves... but not before.

Lord,

That we might have patience.  That we chose to wait for You to lead us.  That we might endure through times of testing so that we can be complete, lacking nothing.

Amen.

SDG