THE POWER OF PATIENCE

When some folks hear the word Patience, they roll their eyes, twist their mouth up, and shake their heads.

They believe that patience is for fools or suckers. They think it’s a scam.

They associate Patience with weakness, suffering, and being powerless.

Many see patience as just sitting around waiting and wasting time. And no one wants to wait!

Yet it seems that everywhere we turn we are waiting for something or someone. Waiting for a call, waiting for a break, waiting to start, or waiting for it to end.

Waiting for an answer, waiting for a result, waiting for a raise, waiting for a job, waiting for a relationship, waiting for things to get better, waiting for things to get worse. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for God only knows what now!

We’re frustrated with all the waiting. We want it now; we don’t want to be patient!

Patience is in very short supply these days because of the “YOU CAN HAVE IT RIGHT NOW” culture we live in.

It encourages us all to be impatient. So much of our lives today are governed by immediate access to whatever we want, whenever we want it. We get instant gratification delivered right to our front door.

This culture of impatience has been exacerbated by the advancement of technology over the last 30 years. We went from a busy telephone signal, antennas on our televisions, and dial up tone internet to now having 8K HD TV on our phones, 100 GIG speed internet, and AI helping us 24 hours a day.

We never have to wait for anything, life is at our fingertips instantaneously and with little to no effort. Ding! You’ve got an offer for $1000.00 with only 69% interest rate for 16 years.

We feel we don’t have to hope or believe for anything. We can just click and get what we want. One keystroke and it’s here.

That has set a very dangerous precedent.

Technology requires that we worship a Bot or an algorithm. We need to get an update.

Technology offers instant Fame, but only Patience can give us sustained Success. Quick is not sustainable.

Patience makes us despise time. We loathe time.

We hate waiting for time, so we try and kill time. We waste time. We rob time and get robbed of time. We lose time, and yet we still have all the time in the world even when we don’t want it. That is until, until we need more time at the end.

Yet, No one can stop time! No one can affect time! No one can control time!

No one, but… Patience!!! Yes, PATIENCE. Patience is strong, not weak. Patience is no pushover.

Patience gives us the ability to manage time and not be managed by time. Patience can help us tame time.

Through the Power of Patience, we manage our time to get more done while we are waiting, thus making time fly by.

Time responds to productivity. As we are productive, time becomes a tool, not a hinderance.

We can now control the flow of time, by becoming time managers.

The truth is that Patience is Powerful.

The author of War and Peace put it this way, “The two most powerful warriors are Patience and Time.” Leo Tolstoy

Patience is a time bender.

Let’s look at some of the lessons that others have learned about Patience.

King David wrote. I waited patiently for the Lord, then he turned his ear toward me and heard my cry. Psalm 40:1

Moses recited. The Lord will fight for you; you only need to be patient. Exodus 14:14

Paul encouraged us. Let us not become weary in doing right, after we have been patient, we will get our harvest if we don’t give up Galatians 6:9

See how Patience dictates time.

What do we call someone who lacks Patience? We call them IMPATIENT.

We must learn to be a PATIENT of Patience, not an IMPATIENT to it.

A patient is the one who is taken care of. We need to let patience take care of us. Let her do her job.

Let patience have her perfect way, so that when she is done, we will be perfect and not be in desire of anything. said James 1:4

Patience is what will make us the best version of ourselves.

When we yield ourselves to Patience, she will yield her power to us.

Here are 8 ways that we can become more powerful by yielding to the Power of Patience.

1.     When we are Patient, she will give us the power to become Peaceful and be less anxious. God doesn’t have to run, and neither should we.

2.     When we are Patient, she will give us the power to become Visionaries. We can see past the temporary of now! We know there is a bigger picture than what’s in front of us. There is a whole world out there past the front of our windshield.

3.     When we are Patient, she will give us the power to become Fearless. We’re not scared to wait anymore. We embrace it! We’re Time Tamers now. The more time the better we will be prepared.

4.     When we are Patient, she will give us the power to grow our Self-Control. We’re no longer angry, annoyed, or upset at everyone or everything that causes us to wait. We no longer become so easily undone. I now know how to be calm and wait. Selah!

5.     When we are Patient, she will give us the power to Build Our Character. We learn to Trust and become even more Trustworthy to others.

6.     When we are Patient, she will give us the power to grow in Resilience. Bring it on, I can take it. I can make it. I will make it! We will make it!

7.     When we are Patient, she will give us the power to become Better Listeners. Things get slower, when we are patient. We’ll be more focused. We can hear others now. We can hear God now!

8.     When we are Patient, she will give us the power to be More Kind. We can offer help and encouragement to others going through their waiting times. We can share with them what we’ve learned.

I’ll leave you with this to ponder.

“A man who is a master of patience, is master of everything else.” - George Savile

This is a Thompson Truth