Learning Patience

Were you ever told by your parent, “Be patient!”? Or did you ever say the same thing to our children? It’s much easier said than done. I well remember being counselled to be patient as I anxiously awaited the coming of Christmas, annual school holidays or some other long anticipated joy. But even more memorable was waiting for a cast to be removed from a broken limb or a bandage from an injury. Even at the earliest age many of us learned the truth of James’ statement, “tribulation works patience!”

At times like these we get an inkling of the patience of Job and how he acquired it. A patient once asked a doctor as he lay immobilised by a very serious accident, “Doctor, how long will I have to lie here?” The doctor answered, “Only one day at a time!”

Learning Patience Sometimes Requires Us To Go Through The School Of Hard Knocks, Then The College Of Crisis In Order To Graduate From The University Of Adversity!

What a lesson. Isn’t it tremendous that sufficient for each day is God’s provision of grace? When we are worried and anxious about the long term, God ministers in the short term, providing grace and endurance for every moment. Patience is a very practical requirement for those who would serve the Lord. How often we encounter problems that no amount of human energy or ingenuity can solve. How frequently we face apparent failures that no amount of knowledge or human wisdom can fix.It may be a relative or a friend we wish to see come to the Lord. When we run up against the stubbornness of self-will, no amount of personal burden, desire, or cleverness on our part, will bring them one millimetre closer to salvation. The time comes when we must concede that only faith, prayer and patience can be brought to bear in the situation.

It may be a relationship conflict in life. Again, a situation in which another’s will is involved. A time when we must ultimate concede that no matter what we do we cannot change another person. We can only allow God to change us and our response to the problem or other person as we submit ourselves to His Holy Spirit working in our lives. If the other party is to be changed, it will have to be the Holy Spirit using us to help them or working directly in their life to bring about the desired changes in attitudes and outlooks and responses. The time comes when we can but rest in the promises of the Lord and lean upon His strong arm to uphold us in the day of our testing and trouble.

It may be a personal trial or thorn in the flesh. A problem or condition that is just beyond our human capacity to cope. A time when we, as Paul, must turn to Him and listen to His voice and accept his promise of sufficient grace. It is then in our resultant infirmity that we may learn patience to keep going on for the Lord.

Yes, we all learned at an early age that patience is related to waiting. Waiting is the common element. For the Christian the critical concern is not just waiting, but how we wait and what waiting works in us. The prophet Isaiah says to those who have exhausted their patience in the work of the Lord, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles: they shall run and not be weary: and they shall walk and not faint.”

Soaring As The Eagle!

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;..."  (Isaiah 40:30-3

"In 1976 I was privileged to spend a number of weeks in the Solomon Islands with Missionary Neil Morely. We were ministering to and teaching groups of indigenous pastors. It was necessary to fly from one island to another. We were blessed to have Missionary Aviation Fellowship flights available. I will never forget a flight back from a remote village on the Island of Malaita to the main town of Honiara. A storm arose just as we were preparing to take off in the sea plane. The pilot was obviously quite concerned. He would have to fly over a mountain range.

He told us he had no choice because there was a medical emergency. As we headed out, directly into the storm, the clouds became very dark and ascended high into the heavens. It was clear the pilot was praying as hard as we were. Just before we met the storm he said, “Pray with me. I’m going to run into the storm front. If we are blessed, the leading edge up-draft will lift us above the storm and over the mountain!” Our prayers were answered. At just the critical moment the wind caught us and tossed us upward like an autumn leaf for what seemed like a thousand feet or so. You can hardly imagine the prayer of gratitude that flowed for from the heart of His dear little child that day! When I think of our God’s promise that we can mount up with wings as eagles I always think of that awesome and powerful experience."

The Flight of the Christian Eagle

Isa. 40:28-31 “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.”

In this world of woe there are so many factors that can drag us down and make us basement dwellers. Family, friends, work mates, situations and circumstances beyond our personal control or remedy, all sometimes work independently or collectively to bring us low and bind and incapacitate us.

But God tells us in all circumstance we can “ . . . mount up with wings as eagles;” Those who trust  and depend upon the Lord can break the shackles of despair that bind them and soar free from the miserable moods that plague them. God has made marvellous provision for our escape. The eagle has always been a noble symbol of strength and a greatness. God uses this beautiful and majestic bird to show us the way of triumph over discouragement and despair.

Those that truly depend upon the Lord need never become dependent upon chemical solutions for their problems. My experience indicates that many addicts begin their down hill journey by attempting to deal with or drown the effects of ordinary daily irritations and afflictions with alcohol or drugs.

Once  I was assisting  my grandson in some homework in biology. He was studying birds and their different types of wings. I found it fascinating that God made different types of birds with radically different sorts of wings designed to fit their particular needs and environment. The eagle is a soaring bird. His wings are aerodynamically designed for soaring. The eagle loves storms and winds that would be considered adverse and destructive by the ordinary bird. He simply effortlessly spreads his wings and catches the up-drafts and peacefully soars far above the buffeting winds without even having to flap his wings.

What a beautiful analogy God gives us in this simple simile! We have the unlimited power of the Holy Wind (hagios pneuma) of God to lift us above the terrible twin peaks of discouragement and despair. All we have to do is to spread our wings of faith amidst the raging winds and storms of life and we will be borne freely into the heights of the wonderful calm of His presence and peace.