THE NEED FOR PATIENCE
"For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." - Hebrews 10:36 (KJV)
Patience is one of those Christian virtues that are essential to our success in the faith (2Pet 1:5).
There is a very close relationship between temptations, afflictions and patience. The trying of our faith, the Bible says, works patience (Jam 1-3).
Now, what's patience? It is the ability to remain under a situation until God gets you out. The Bible says that we need patience, that, after we have done the will of God, we might receive the promise. - Hebrews 10:36. Enduring is another way to translate patience.
There are many people who cannot wait on God. They are so much in a hurry to get out of every situation that they judge to be unpleasant. People are in such a hurry that in their quest for the fulfillment of God's promise, they end up with Ishmael, instead of Isaac.
In the quest for the fulfillment of God's promise in our lives, there is the will of God that we must do first. Then, there is a time span between the doing and the receiving of the promise. During that time span, we must wait, endure or have patience. We must be able to remain under that situation until God shows up with the promise.
Let me show you an example. The Bible says in Genesis 8:22 that
"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." This is the spiritual law showing us that harvest responds only to seed, not to prayers, fastings, human connections or positions. Only to seed. In other words, only seed sown equals harvest. Until seed is sown, harvest is not in view. But there's always a time lag after the sowing, before the harvest. The sowing is the will of God that we are called to do, after which we need patience before we receive the promise of the harvest (see Heb 10:36). Have you seen a farmer who settles down to harvest his farm so soon after he has sown the seed? Nature teaches that after we sow the seed, we wait for the seed to germinate, for the rain to water the seed, for the plant to grow to maturity, bear fruit, and eventually get ripened for the harvest. Sometimes, this process can take months or years, depending on the type of seed we sow.
It's the same with praying for God's promise. Once we have activated our faith in any of God's promises, we need to wait, to exercise patience before we receive the promise. In the meantime, some veer off the faith, and sometimes they do incredible things out of impatience. We need to remind ourselves regularly that God is faithful to fulfill His promises and that He rewards patience! Besides, He makes everything beautiful in His time (Eccl 3:11).
PRAYER:
Dearest Heavenly Father, I receive the grace to patiently wait for the fulfillment of your promise to me, in Jesus' mighty name.