Is patience a gene? I have always been impatient. Overcoming this failing is part of my personal climb. I have read the biblical verses relating to this subject many times over and some have been helpful, but trying to be patient when you’re feeling impatient is a bit like trying to be well when you are feeling sick. It’s a nice try, but it usually doesn’t go far, and I know I still have a ways to go. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit of God, of course, but that doesn’t mean that God makes us instantly patient if we ask for his help with it. As someone wryly observed, if you ask God for patience, don’t expect a quick reply. But seriously, we have to develop patience with the help we are given. That’s why I was particularly happy with something I was reading in the Book of Ephesians recently. As I read in the New International Version, I saw something I hadn’t noticed before. Paul writes:
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4: 1-2).
Now I just happened to look at these verses again in the King James version and noticed something different in the last part of the verse: “…with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.”
The difference is small, but it triggered a thought in my mind: The semicolon used in the NIV directly before “be patient” makes it look like there are two separate thoughts (being humble and gentle on the one hand and patient and bearing with people on the other), whereas the series of commas in the KJV looks more like a continuous, connected thought. The original Greek of the New Testament doesn’t have punctuation, of course; but as I looked at it, it seemed to me that the sense of the verse really is one continuous subject and thought – with humility, gentleness, and patience seeming to be grouped together as related qualities.
Then when I looked at what Paul says in Colossians 3:12-13, I saw the same pattern: “… clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another…” Here we have compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience grouped together – the same qualities we see in Ephesians 4 with a couple more added.
What struck me about these verses is that the qualities Paul is talking about can indeed be interrelated, and this has a practical application which I found I was able to put into action. Instead of thinking about patience as an abstract goal when I’m feeling impatient with someone, I found that if I work on one of the more concrete qualities in the group Paul brings together, it helps with the impatience at the same time. For example, thinking about and working on being humble when I’m feeling impatient really makes a difference.
After all, when I remind myself I’m not the center of the universe, what does it matter that someone is late to meet with me? If I think about what it means to be compassionate, I can better empathize with the overwhelmed driver in front of me who is holding up all the traffic, and so on. If I focus on the other qualities on Paul’s list, I don’t even have to think about patience directly in order to better apply it.
Anyway, I think this small tactic is helping me grow in this area. Perhaps not as quickly as I would like, but I have to be patient.
* We now have a Free e-book on patience: Why Every Christian Needs More Patience – download your free copy here.
Scripture says in many places that we are to “pray always” or to pray “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, Ephesians 6:18, etc.). How can we possibly do that? What does that mean? Understanding the answers will make all the difference in the level of our relationship with our heavenly Father.
It does not mean that we must literally have our head bowed, eyes closed, while praying non-stop 24 hours a day! We all would have been fired from our jobs long ago if we lived like that. It means we go through each day with an active awareness of the presence of the Almighty. It means we take time to connect with Him dozens of times a day in quick short prayers.
We surely should connect with our Father first and last thing each day – especially in a formal prayer time on our knees. David and Daniel prayed three times a day in these formal type prayers (Psalm 55:17; Daniel 6:10, 13). In these prayers we praise Him, thank Him, ask for His forgiveness for where we fell short; we intercede for others, and we ask for the help we need as well. But we always praise and thank.
These times of prayer on our knees, I think of as “formal prayer times” and I think they are necessary. It is good for US to be on our knees before our Maker. It is good for US to confess our sins, to ask forgiveness, and then to praise and to intercede. That’s formal prayer time primarily. I recommend you be sure you are giving God this honor. Don’t fall for the teaching that it’s OK to JUST have quickie prayers while we shave or do dishes or drive to work on the freeway. We should have definite formal prayer times on our knees (if our knees and bodies allow for that) first as the foundation. THEN, to those times, we add the concept of “praying without ceasing”.
We’re told that Cornelius, the first Gentile convert, was a devout man who “prayed to God ALWAYS” (Acts 10:2). As a centurion, he had many responsibilities, so how could he possibly pray to God always?
So HOW do we “pray always”?
I believe it means going through the day with a keen awareness of the presence of God in your life. That will be easier to do if we started the day on a foundation of prayer, before we eat, before we go to work. It’s easier to do if you’ve consciously asked Him to help you “turn your heart” back to Him. After that, you’ll be getting nudged by His Spirit many times a day. You’re “hearing His voice” in many different ways, conversations and circumstances. So to me it means that all through the day we’re connecting with Father in dozens of quick short prayers. It’s like touching base with our Maker all through the day. If you’re not doing that already, you’ll be amazed how your life changes once you make a practice of calling on Father all through the day and into the night. He’s a FATHER! He LIKES hearing from His kids.
So think of “praying always” as a way to be walking and talking with God all day long. Always. Be saying silent prayers before and during important meetings. Lift up a brother or sister in Christ to heavenly realms in prayers several times a day, every day. Look up and just quietly ask Father to smooth out your paths for you, if things aren’t going well. Maybe you should have touched base many times before that point already! When feeling anxious, I like to look up and say something like, “There I go again. I don’t want it to be me – but to be YOU. I have no reason to worry or fret since you are with me. I have every reason to claim the victory, to shout the joyful triumphs, even long before I see the final outcome, knowing I walk with the King of the Universe!”
Our spirit should be in lock step with God’s Spirit. It should be like the cloud over the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings – when the Cloud moved, they moved. When it stood still, they stood still. We should be so responsive to God’s spirit moving in us that we are in lock step with HIS will, HIS desire, and HIS purpose. It’s when we let the “noise” of society, too much TV-facebook-smart phone-emails-texting-twitter-games, too many concerns and worries and things that busy us crowd out Father’s voice that it starts to diminish. If we are “in Him”, we will grow in the ability to harmonize His will into our lives, to subjugate our own desires and seek His pleasure in everything we do.
This harmony comes about largely by constantly connecting and checking in throughout the day. And that is also WHY we “pray without ceasing” – to get in harmony with God our Father. To hear His voice. To let Him hear ours. And to walk together in the Spirit.
*Condensed, with permission, from the author’s blog at lightontherock.org
An irony of faithful regular Bible study is that the more you read it, the more familiar the Bible becomes – and sometimes we may feel we are just not seeing as much as we did when we first, excitedly, came to the word of God. Now clearly, our major responsibility in this is faithful prayer along with the study – prayer to see and understand more each time we continue our journey in the book. We also need to study with a purpose – not just to be reminded of things we know, or to see something new, but to learn more of the mind of God, and to learn how we might take on that mind in the small things of which everyday life is composed.
But there is something else we can do to keep our interest level high and to be rewarded with new understanding. Get a new translation. Many of us stay with the same old translation simply because we like to stay with the same physical Bible. It’s “the Bible” to us, it’s comfortable and may have our markings and notes built up through years of reading. But we don’t have to end our relationship with that Bible in order to try a new translation.
I have my own favorite translation and it is the one to which I most frequently turn, but when I feel that I am not seeing anything beyond what I saw the last time I read a biblical book or pondered a single chapter or verse, I turn to another translation. It’s not that my regular version is not accurate enough, but that I want to hear the words with different stresses, from a different perspective as it were. Just recently I did this with the Book of Job. Rereading Job in a different translation opened up dozens of new insights for me. The words themselves were not necessarily so different from the translation I usually use, but time and again seeing the same verses from a different perspective helped me to see things I had read over earlier.
But I’m not talking about comparing lines or verses in different translations. That is fine for detailed study of exactly which words are “best” in translating a given verse. I’m talking about just taking a different version and immersing yourself in it – getting used to its speech patterns and style in the same way you would if you were listening to a new friend speak.
The great thing is just how simple it is to try another translation. If you like reading on a screen, many Bible versions are available online on various Bible websites (see our article “Five Bible Study Sites Compared”) and many Bible versions can now be obtained free for reading on the Kindle or with the Kindle for PC application or other e-reader. So, if you sometimes feel that Bible study is not as exciting for you as it was, or if you would just like to maximize what you see in a given study session, give yourself a lift – try a new translation.
“… Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! …” (Matthew 14:27)
The Bible contains many stories of courage. Some, such as the account of the young David fighting the giant Goliath, come quickly to mind. But there are dozens more examples throughout the pages of Scripture where individuals stepped forward and fought against huge odds or difficult situations – often alone and without the support of others. There are lessons we should not miss in these stories; here are three that we should take to heart:
Courage Is Commanded
“Take courage” is not just a biblical suggestion; it is a biblical command. We may be well aware of the many inspiring Old Testament verses such as “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified … for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6) and the multiple times God commanded his leaders such as Joshua to be courageous (Joshua 1:6, 7, 9, etc.), but we don’t always notice examples in the New Testament that apply directly to us.
If we look carefully, we find Jesus not only commanded courage of his disciples when they feared: “… Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage!” (Matthew 14:27; Mark 6:50), but we also find him reminding his servants to have courage relative to the work he gave them to do: “The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11).
The apostle Paul clearly obeyed that command (Philippians 1:20, etc.) and passed the command along to the Christians he taught: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). There is no question that courage is commanded of the followers of Christ as much as it was of God’s servants in Old Testament times.
Courage Is Contagious
It helps us to understand the importance of courage when we realize that there is not a single instance among the dozens of accounts of physical and spiritual bravery found in the Bible where one person’s courage did not have an emboldening effect on others.
Again, we may be more familiar with Old Testament examples such as Saul’s son Jonathan demonstrating courage that inspired his armor bearer to join him in fighting heavy odds (1 Samuel 14:1-13). Numerous examples in the Hebrew Scriptures show people being inspired by a courageous action, even if only after someone else was successful. Such was the case with the disheartened Israelites after David slew Goliath (1 Samuel 17:52).
But there are also fascinating examples of the contagious nature of courage in the New Testament. Take the case of Joseph of Arimathea who bravely asked Pilate for the body of Jesus in order to give him a proper burial. The Gospel of Mark tells us that “Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus” (Mark 15:43 ESV). This was no small act of bravery, as Jesus had just been executed as a rebel instigating sedition against the Roman Empire – and Joseph was no natural hero. John’s Gospel tells us: “… Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away” (John 19:38).
But Joseph’s act of courage had immediate ripple effects. John’s Gospel also tells us that “He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds [to embalm the body of Jesus]” (John 19:39). When Joseph “took courage,” he inspired Nicodemus – who had been too afraid of the Jews to talk with Jesus except under the cover of darkness – to likewise act with courage.
Courage is not just for heroes. Biblical examples like these show courage always has an effect – even when others are afraid to act until they see the success of someone who does demonstrate courageous behavior.
Courage Is Confirming
Not only is courage contagious when it is demonstrated, but acting courageously – even if we do not feel courageous – confirms our faith to God, to others and even to ourselves. God commands us to live courageously so he is obviously well pleased when we do so.
But acts of courage can have an effect on others that we may not even guess at the time. The Book of Acts tells us specifically that the Jewish priestly authorities questioned the apostles Peter and John in a threatening manner regarding their teaching, but: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). It was the courage of the two apostles, not their learning or eloquence, that was a witness to the Jewish priests and religious leaders. It is doubtless not a coincidence that shortly after that we are told: “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).
Acting with courage even helps confirm our own dedication to God and his calling. We need faith to have courage and courage to express our faith. The apostle Paul showed this when he wrote: “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).
So the words of Christ and the disciples he taught show the unending need for courage in our personal lives and in doing the work we are given to do. Courage is needed to withstand evil and wrongdoing – to resist what is wrong in our own lives and in society, especially if we feel we are alone in carrying on the fight. But courage is contagious, and our actions invariably will inspire others.
Finally, courageous living demonstrates our faith in right and proper ways. Put simply, we need to take courage because courage is faith in action. Courage and our beliefs work hand in hand. We should never forget that the effect of courage on Christianity can be considerable, and the effect of Christianity on courage can be enormous. Take courage!
“… the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
Some of us love the sight of a universal gym or a set of free weights. Some of us view such things as being remarkably like our idea of medieval torture devices. But whether we willingly undergo a hard workout or not, everyone admits that becoming physically stronger usually takes a lot of sweat and effort. Similarly, we may think that increasing spiritual strength usually involves hard work and the dedicated practice of disciplines such as prayer and fasting. So if I were to tell you there is a perfectly pleasurable and sweat-free way to increase your spiritual strength you would probably think I was selling something. Yet the Bible tells us that such a source of strength is available to us.
The verse quoted above from the Book of Nehemiah makes an amazing statement if we are willing to focus on it and accept it for what it says: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Given what we know of most strength-building exercises, this sounds almost too good to be true, but Nehemiah’s words are not just some pleasant poetic statement. It’s not that he just happened to mention joy and strength in the same sentence – there are actually a good number of biblical passages that link joy and strength directly.
In fact, 1 Chronicles 16:27 tells us that these qualities are linked in the nature of God himself: “Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his dwelling place.” Once we begin to see the connection between joy and strength in this and numerous other verses, we begin to understand what the connection is. Joy is a source of strength that can help carry us through the difficulties of life just as much as determination and endurance, and in some ways more so.
It is true that Christians are among those who mourn for the evils of the world (Matthew 5:4) and that we experience pain and sorrow just like other people (John 16:33), but these are temporary reactions to specific situations, not our everyday attitude. Joy is the great strength-enhancer that shores up patience and enables endurance. It can carry us through pain and difficulties and enable us to focus on others even in difficult circumstances. Joy can actually enable us to accomplish incredible things beyond what would normally be possible. Do we believe and focus on that fact? Do we believe and focus on the fact that it helped Jesus himself to make the ultimate sacrifice: “… who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…” (Hebrews 12:2 ESV, NKJV, etc., emphasis added).
Jesus specifically told his followers “These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11). Joy is an unmistakable hallmark of those who follow him closely. Those who were imprisoned with Dietrich Bonhoeffer before his execution said that he always spread an attitude of happiness and joy, despite his dire circumstances. Those who knew Mother Teresa say that although her work with the poor and the diseased would have depressed and even crushed many people, her attitude as she did her work was always one of joy. The kind of joy that gives us this strength is not entirely human made, of course. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that deep, strengthening joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit of God, but we can help develop that joy by cultivating it in our daily thoughts and actions. To seek the strength of joy in our lives is not to spend our lives in seeking temporary pleasures, but to find joy in what God gives us each day – whatever the situation, whatever the difficulty. That is the lesson that those like Bonhoeffer and Mother Teresa had learned. It is a truth that Nehemiah understood thousands of years before our time, that joy and strength go hand in hand, and that the joy of the Lord is our strength.
You know the feeling. You are about to do or say something, or you pause in a chain of thought, when you suddenly tell yourself that something is not right, that it may not be good to continue with the thought, word or action. There is nothing mystical about it, but this moment of hesitation, this quiet voice of self-restraint is something that everyone experiences at some point, just as the apostle Paul wrote that it was something that affected Christians and pagans alike (Romans 2:14-15). We may call this our conscience or use some other term. Some say it is God speaking to them, others that it is just the result of learned social behavior. In the Middle Ages many people thought it was an angel whispering in their ear. Albert Einstein called it an “inner voice” and others have called it an “inner light.” But no matter what we call it, or where we feel it comes from, it is an established fact of human psychology. We are not talking about hearing voices in one’s head – just a feeling or awareness that some action or response isn’t good or right. It’s like an internal warning system that is suddenly sounding in our minds. The problem, of course, exists when we turn down the volume and stop listening to that alarm. Typically, before we act in error, our conscience warns us to stop. If we choose to ignore its warning, or begin to think up rationalizations why we need not heed this feeling, the alarm will turn off and the urging of our conscience subsides – only to return later to condemn us if we go ahead with behavior we knew was not right.
The apostle James wrote about this progression between the awareness of something wrong and the results of tuning out that awareness: “but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). The beginning of this chain is the still small voice that, if rejected, temporarily disappears. The amazing thing is that this is something we all understand, yet something that we so often don’t act upon. Yet the battle for good habits and right living is almost always fought at this point – at the very beginning of the trajectory. If we ignore the restraining call and proceed regardless, we invariably end up, as James affirms, in sin.
As a result, it’s possible that one of the greatest things we can do in overcoming wrong and growing in doing what is right in our lives is to train ourselves to listen to that voice and immediately act on its guidance. To listen and stop immediately has been called, in theology, the obsta principiis – the determination to “resist the beginnings,” because, as we have seen, that’s where the real battle is always fought at the moment the alarm sounds. Again, there is nothing mystical about this, it’s simply a matter of acting immediately on what we know is right. But the key lies in understanding that every time we ignore the inner voice of restraint and go ahead with what we wish to do, say or think, we actually move further away from where we really want to go in life. Every time we stop at the first “sound” of that alarm we move further toward our real goals. We need to train ourselves to listen for that inner alarm, learn to recognize it and to stop in our tracks. Counter-intuitive as it might seem physically, if we want to move forward further and faster spiritually, we need to stop more often.
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