Proverbs 19:11 A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.
There is a clear correlation between Godly wisdom, spiritual growth (Spiritual
Maturity), and patience. There is only one way we can learn patience, and that
is to wait; it is not that we can somehow gain control over our patients so
that when a season of waiting comes our way, we will be able to show patience.
There was once a young person who had just been saved and spoke to an older
Christian. The young believer told the older Christian they would like to
control their patience and ask if they would pray with them. They were standing
right next to the altar in the church, so the older Christian suggested they
kneel at the altar and pray. The older Christian started the prayer off with,
“Dear God, please bring a trial or tribulation to this young person’s life.” The young Christian stopped the prayer
immediately and said, “I don’t want any tribulation in my life; I just want to
learn patience.”
When we find ourselves walking through a dark
valley or our seas become stormy, we will be faced with two choices, try to fix
the problem ourselves or wait on God to fix it in His time. Waiting on God is
the best option because, unlike us, God can see the end of the tribulation; he
already knows the outcome. Sometimes someone in our orbit may say or do
something that we see as an offense to us. There will be times that we view
someone’s actions or words as something that offended our well-being. It is not
a matter of if this will ever occur because the time will come that it will
happen (James 1:2). James makes it truly clear that it is not if we face
these trials and tribulations but when we face them. James also tells us
that we should consider these times a very joyful event. The joy comes not
because of the offense or trial but because any tribulation that comes our way
will be a growing and maturing experience in our Christian walk.
We can all be patient when things are going our
way, and no one is pushing us for explanations or clarifications. But when
these times come, as tricky as they may seem, they are God’s way of teaching us patients. We all possess human nature, and that characteristic brings with it a
feeling of self-preservation. However, since God created us and He sees the
future, as we cannot do, waiting on God to calm the waters of our stormy seas
will always be the best option.
It is one thing to show patients when we are on the mountain top; it is
something altogether different to be patient when we feel wronged. C.S. Lewis
once wrote that “Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying us
at the moment.” Our true signs of wisdom
and spiritual growth are when we can overlook and forgive the faults of others,
which we view as having offended us.
If You would like the Verse of the Day sent to your daily E-Mail send a request
in the "Comments" section. Please include your e-mail
address
No comments:
Post a Comment