Have a little Patience.

If you take a look at the date in which this blog is posted in comparison to the previous, you will quickly realize that it took me some time in getting round to posting this. The reason for delay is not because I had no thoughts to put down but actually the opposite. For over two months now I have continuously wrestled with Patience. Franticly I have been scribbling down thoughts and emotions on this topic. I have dwelled and rested upon this in incredible thing which is Patience.

In the words of the great singer, song writer Gary Barlow 'Have a little patience..' That's the very message in which has been spoke so intensely into my life. Patience is a virtue. As a very young child I was looked after by my grandmother during the day whilst my parents where at work. Potentially my grandmothers most used phrase to me, as very anxious and restless young lad was 'Patience is a virtue.' Of course nobody wants to wait until after dinner to have sweets, am I right?

In life when things are going your way it is very easy to have patience and demonstrate it. So this is not a test of our patience. A true test of our patience comes when the rights we have come under violation. In the long run patience can effect our reaction and ultimately our witness. Its so easy to lose the head on a sports field. It's so easy to get extremely annoyed as a driver on the roads and lately I have been made aware of these things. For months upon months I prayed for patience in expectation that God would just deliver this attribute straight into my life. But I continued to battle with it so often. Recently an individual who knows me very well through Christian accountability and mentoring, made me very aware of this situation. "When we pray to God for patience, he will not just give you it. He will give you more opportunities to demonstrate patience" This completely shattered and rebuilt my thinking upon my patience issue and suddenly Gods good and perfect way is made known. What an amazing God we serve.

What a simple and humble act, yet can have such a massive effect! Patience can speak so loudly. Believe me I am not plucking this from mid air or because it sounds cool. I have spectated and acted, and from experience I can tell you that it does. Even how people who have demonstrated patience towards me has made me think.

I have mentioned about how we should be patient towards others. Now I want to say about how we have to show patience towards God. In Psalm 37 v7-9 it says:

'Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper—it only leads to harm. For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land.'

These two verses have been so close to me lately. When we pray, so often we expect direct answer to pray in which will benefit us in the best way 'we' see fit. How ridiculous that we think we know better than our creator. How crazy is it that we think our way could be better than Gods. Our plans are a fraction in compared to how great and amazing his plan is for us- we just have to get lost in him.  Sometimes we will not get what we want at the time but God knows best. Have patience, God will answer you. Wait upon him.

Psalm 40:1
'I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry'

Emotion

As a believer, the joy, hope and love in life is amazing. Life has promise and direction.

Nevertheless pain and suffering also comes. For everyone there will be moments of hurt, pain, loneliness, heartbreak and disappear. So where and how do we channel these emotions.

Recently in my life, many thoughts have emerged from this. For myself and many other Christians it can sometimes be the hardest thing to turn to God in times of pain and suffering and say "I need you". Why? Pride. For any individual it can be seen as a type of weakness by calling on the need of someone else. We would much rather try and control our own situations ourselves. These situations in life spiral out, in truth we will never be able to do it by ourselves we cannot control uncontrollable elements. But God can, we have to learn to offload these burdens onto Christ, he gives us freedom. In the moment of turning to him, he is there, you are his. His presence overwhelms and peace enters like none other.

Every individual battles with different things, the experience of being caught in the middle of broken family, broken relationships or friendships, the passing away of a loved one, loneliness, fear and many more. It is so easy for these things to over write your life. To grab you and shake you to your core, to break you to your knees in despair. It overwhelms you and influences your actions. Suddenly you ask the question of who you are? Because these things effect character.

When huge bombshells hit your life, its ok. Its ok to feel numb, anger, shock, denial, its ok. Its fine to have no answers or explanations or even words. But what helps is that Jesus 'wept'. In the book of John it tells us of the story of Lazarus a friend of Jesus. Lazarus dies and a couple of days later Jesus comes to Lazarus' village and the are all gathered sobbing and mourning his death. Jesus just enters into this huge mess and it says "he is deeply moved in his spirit" and then goes on to say "Jesus wept". He lets the full force of the moment hit him, you have to let it hit you, you cannot avoid it. If you try to avoid it you keep it inside you and at some point it will come out, you just have to allow to moment to hit you. If Jesus, Gods Son let it out then so should we.