Patience

— For the week of March 30, 2008 —

Patience is accepting a difficult situation
without giving God a deadline to handle it.

Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for Him.
— Psalm 37:7

Have you ever prayed this prayer during an anxious moment, "Lord, give me patience ... and I want it now!"

Have you ever taken a "crash course" on patience?

Do interruptions, inconveniences, and irritations test your patience?

Ministry is full of interruptions, inconveniences, and irritations — they come with the territory. The late night phone call after a car accident. A robbery at the church. A disgruntled parent in the middle of your sermon preparation. Irritable board members, irritable staff members, and board members who are irritated with staff members.

Sometimes it makes you want to change the words of "When We All Get to Heaven" to "When all But You Get to Heaven!"

The key to overcoming these trials is patience — a fruit of the Spirit. It is impossible to lead people without this Spirit-given virtue. Without it, the pulpit can become an artery of anger, the board agenda a strategy for revenge, and the preacher intolerant and ultimately unnecessary.

James 1:2,3 (KJV) says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." Keep that in mind the next time trials of many kinds come your way — patience is being developed in you!

Taken from The Minister's Little Devotional Book.
Copyright © 1997 by H.B. London Jr. and Stan Toler.
Used by permission of RiverOak Publishing, Tulsa, Okla.
All rights reserved.