Patience

They say patience is a virtue. I would say that patience is a miracle of God.

One of the greatest struggles in my life has been waiting on things and making sure that I do things in the right order and the right way. I have a tendency to want the gratification now and I do not want to wait for it to come in he future. There seems to be this consistent voice that says "get it now because it may not be there in the future and you will  miss out if you wait." What this voice fails to tell me is the loss of what might have been if I had waited or what I am losing out on now by not waiting. You see there are consequences for each choice that we make and when we opt for the instant gratification over patience then many times we are replacing God's plan for blessing with a plan that leads to pain and destruction. 

One of the greatest examples of this is Abraham. God had promised him a huge family of descendants yet he was without a child and instead of waiting for God to fulfill His promise he decided to take matters in to his  own hands. One of the consequences  of this choice has been centuries of fighting and the deaths of 1000's as the two lines of Abraham have continued to fight with a hatred that is beyond conpare. 

I do not know how you struggle with being patient  but I know that do all of the time. I struggle with being patient with my children. I struggle with being patient with the people around me. It is my prayer and hope that I will continue to get closer to having the eyes of God that sees the bigger picture and because of that I will be better able to live both in this moment and in the ones to come.

Hearing

So how do we hear the voice of God? How do we know God's desire for us in a given moment or situation? Is there always one choice that is right and one that is wrong?

These are all questions that believers wrestle with in their walk with God. The answers to these questions seem to be as varied as the people who ask them. This variety of answers has lead me to the conclusion that it is not necessarily the answer that is important but rather it is the journey to finding the answers that is. It is the journey that is deigned to lead us closer to God and that is the ultimate prize of answer these questions. So as you seek the answers to these questions and many like them I hope that you take the time to enjoy the journey that God is leading you on..

Promises

One of the greatest struggles we each have in life is overcoming broken promises. We feel lied to and have a sense of lost trust. For many of us it does matter how big or small the promise is, it matters that someone did not do what they told us they would do. This mountain becomes especially large when we feel as though God has broken His promises to us. It strikes us at our deepest levels because we believe above all else that if anyone is capable of keeping all of their promises it should be God. When dealing with these feelings I have noticed some typical responses in myself and others.

1.We question God in general. We question if he really does care for us. We can get angry because we feel like He promised us something and that we have been trusting that promise and yet it has remained unfulfilled.

2.We question ourselves. We start thinking about all of the ways in which we might have messed up the promise God has for us. We blame ourselves for our lack of joy and contentment. 

3. We question our relationship with God. We can begin to question everything we have heard from Him. We can even begin to question our faith in Him.

For most of us none of these responses are the truth. I believe that we mis mark because we have a hard time understanding the idea of the fullness of time. We get an idea in our minds of how things should look and when they dont match that ideal then we question the whole thing rather than taking a step back and considering how much of our ideal is from us and how much of it is from God. I know in my own life I had an idea of how I would be serving in ministry and it has been nothing like what I envisioned. Maybe someday what I had in my head yeas ago will happen and maybe it wont but the key for me is to keep moving forward with all of the opportunities that God has for me and my family in the here and now. I must lead them to a place where they will simply allow Him to be God and enjoy the adventure that He will take them on.