The Perfection of Patience

Our world is being physically turned upside down all around us. For two years in a row the Lord has told me in the summer to pray consistently “Let it snow, let it snow.” It has happened and the weather has been changed. Scripture says, “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.” Dramatic changes like this come with a price—in the suffering, He prepares you for the change that will occur in your life. Maybe I should stop, and instead of using the word suffering I should use the prophetic word that the prophet Timothy Snodgrass used, “Be comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Even if it is cold.
To be honest with you, there are two things that I am struggling with now— about being completely honest with myself, and in my Intimate and personal relationship to God. This is learning to trust God in all of my financial decisions. I have no plan of my own, not even about how I will handle the most intricate financial decision of the future. I’m talking about 100% listening and trusting God for tomorrow, the next day, and for the future. Meaning, He is truly the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, and everything in between. It’s God’s plan or no plan.
Not having a plan, for someone like myself, a natural leader, is uncomfortable. Oh, but remember the word from the prophet Timothy Snodgrass, “Be comfortable with the uncomfortable.” The uncomfortable emptiness of not having a plan, for my financial decisions, that might be as small as where I eat, is actually making me like Jesus who, “learned obedience by the things He suffered.” In the smallest most intricate way God is teaching us obedience, and doing the work of patience in us. The suffering we endure, is patience at work in us. James put it this way, “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
The second struggle that I am dealing with to reach perfection is much more difficult. It’s about my interaction with my own family. As I’ve prayed about this issue, it literally comes down to my ability to go slower and have patience with others who I greatly love. This is a great struggle in my life. In one part, I am obsessed with seeking God and doing His will. But in the other part, as a leader, I am to be a servant to all who are with me. They are to be on my shoulders, not under my feet. This means I am to listen to every member of my family, to understand what they are saying, and to not interrupt their decisions. This sounds, and is, humbling. These are the true actions of a real leader.
If you would now take a moment and go through God‘s interaction with you and your family, I believe you will discover these attributes are seen in God‘s ways. This “uncomfortableness” we’ve been talking about is the perfection that patience is trying to make in us. If you cut patience off before her complete work is done, you may miss the very thing that will bring you complete happiness in this life. Yes, the blessing God is bringing to us is great. And yes, there are those who will try to steal it from you. But shortening the time of patience does not protect you. It is going through the complete work of patience that protects you from all the attacks the enemy might bring.
Sent in love,
Pastor Richard Gazowsky