The Need to be Patient.

Proverbs 14:29
29 A patient man has great understanding,
but a quick-tempered man displays folly.

Life has so much to offer; some things are appealing, and some things are just a complete nuisance. For the sake of this post, I'm going to talk about those events in life that can become bothersome, at least for a moment. It can be the unrelenting homework that never seems to be relevant or the disrespect that certain people give to others. These are not fun to deal with.

Sometimes it feels like these facts of life are just being thrown at us by Satan and he's just pecking at us to try to get us to go against the Fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22). Too often it's natural for us, as human beings, to become extremely flustered and aggravated,appalled, or even insulted. The Bible tells us that responding quickly in anger is foolish, so we must be careful. I've mentioned it before, but anger doesn't solve anything. It only heightens the particular issue.

If we decide, however, to approach our problems with patience, it is far more successful this way. All in all, it shows that you have a great deal of understanding, something that every one of us needs to gain.

Patience might be something you want to improve on right about now so that the Fruit of the Spirit can exist within us. Be careful how you ask for it though. A couple people have told me, and one just recently, something like "Be careful how you pray about patience. Often we are granted more tribulations as a result." I'm not exactly sure what they mean by this, as for where it fits in my life, not with regard to literal meaning. I don't know if I can fully believe this saying because I don't remember actually experiencing a situation of the sort. Perhaps what is meant (in a slightly different context) is if you pray for patience, you're going to get more situations to practice that patience. I think that makes more sense. Therefore, pray for strength so that we can be strong and therefore patient in our situations.

“God's way of answering the Christian's prayer for more patience, experience, hope and love often is to put him into the furnace of affliction” ~Richard Cecil quotes