Just Be Patient!

How often have you heard that admonition?  How often have you said it to someone else?  In either case, chances are that it didn’t accomplish much.

For much of my life I have often been credited with having a lot of patience.   But since my ordeal with this recent illness, I have come to realize that I knew very little about true patience.  Having a phlegmatic personality and a tendency to sometimes allow my mind to wander, I have had a natural ability to deal with waiting for things to happen.  Thus, the apparent quality of patience has been a part of my inherited temperament and nothing in the way of personal accomplishment or cause to boast.

During my slow rehabilitation process, I have grown impatient and discouraged with my progress at various times.  In His mercy, God has spoken to me in these times through the voices of many people, doctors, nurses, former patients, therapists and others, to reinforce the same message: “It’s going to take time.”   By His grace He is developing in me a different level of patience that only He can give.  But once again, it is none to my credit, only to His.

More than 50 years ago Romans 8:28 became my life-guiding verse from the Bible.  Its promise is clear: that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.  But it was not until many years later that I grasped the real goal of this working of God and also began to understand that sometimes the “good” that God is working is not necessarily pleasant during the process.  In fact, the Scriptures tell us to count it as joy when we enter into various trials (James 1:2).

Ironically, I only needed to look at the very next verse following my favorite one for so many years to understand this.  Romans 8:29 explains that God’s working in our lives is for the purpose of achieving the ultimate good of conforming us to the image of His Son Jesus.

So, then, when you are tempted to become impatient, take heart!  It may be that the Lord is ready to take you to a deeper level of trust and understanding and to bring you a step closer to bearing the image of Jesus, the best thing that can ever happen to you!

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren: – Romans 8:29