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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Patience (08/21/08)
While our God may not necessarily be a God of patience, He is surely a God who values patience. His entire plan of creation and salvation seems based around it. God could have created the world in one instant, but He used seven days. He could have sent His son at any time, but He waited until His people had gone through trials and suffering. Jesus could have returned when the apostles expected it most, but He waits. Our God expects patience, and is very good at getting us to learn patience.
But knowing our God has a plan for patience and wants us to be patient people, does not make it any easier. When someone creeps down the highway 15 miles per hour slower than they “should be” or when the person in front of you at the checkout line digs through her purse for coupons and exact change, patience is not the first thing on my mind. My old self comes shining through, the flesh wins out, and I start to fume, roll my eyes, and mutter under my breath. In that instant, God teaches me patience. Patience through compassion as I imagine that driver being my grandmother. Patience through understanding as I fish a coupon out of my own pocket. God teaches me patience as He works to make me more like Christ.
If only sanctification happened all at once. Our old self wiped away, never to rear its ugly head ever again. We would be made completely like Christ in an instant and we could walk around like saints here on earth. That is not how God has ordained it. That is not His plan for our lives. And so we grow, we learn, we struggle, and ultimately we will one day be victorious over it all. But until that day, we must be patient.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
LauraLee Shaw
08/30/08
Very true. Great message in here, and the scenarios you chose to highlight are very realistic. Good job.