Have you ever waited on God and wondered where he was? I have, and to be honest it’s not my most favorite thing in the world to do. To tell you the truth I wish he worked on my time. I wish he would answer all of my requests with, “Oh sure, Marcus, whatever you want.”  But he doesn’t.

I’ve found that much of this Christian life that we live has much to do with walking it out in patience. In Biblical writing they often call patience longsuffering. Longsuffering, what a horrible word!  It just sounds horrible coming off the tongue.  Can you imagine asking someone, “How are you today?” and the answer they give is, “I’m long-suffering.” Let’s be honest; you’re out of there the first chance you get.

During the hyper faith movement we were taught that if you did walk in patience, you were not walking in faith. However, I think that most of us who have seen the fruit of that teaching now realize that it was not correct. So why is it that having patience or longsuffering so important to our Christian life.

I’d like to direct your attention to a little scripture in Ecclesiastes 7:8, “The end of a thing is better than its beginning; the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” It is arrogance and pride that pushes us to be impatient with the plan God has for our lives.

Those who are married know we must have patience with our spouse. If we begin to deal with one another in our pride and selfishness it could spell the end our relationships. We want people to be patient with us, but we don’t like to extend that same grace toward others.

In the scripture quoted here it says the end of things is better than the beginning and the patience in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. God knows when we walk our life out in patience, it allows him to make the corrections in our heart and lives that we need in order to have a better end to our lives than the beginning.

I don’t know about you, but I really want a great end to my life. I think about my children, I want their ending to be better than their beginning.  When my children came into this world they had nothing but their skin. They had no education, they’d given nothing to society, had no legacy and no offspring to carry on the positive traditions of their lives. However, with a life lived out in training and helping them develop patience, they can achieve much in life and add to our society in a positive way.

We are God’s children and he knows the same thing about you and me. That if he raises us to be loving, generous, smart and patient then we will have much to offer this world. If we are selfish, prideful, demanding and impatient, we offer this world very little. Being a child of God means we are a patient people.  We are patient with one another and patient with the issues that face us everyday. We are disciplined to not react to a situation but defer judgment to God. We wait for God to supply instead of racing out to supply it ourselves because God is taking to long. I understand this is much easier said than done, but I do know from my own life and the lives around me that this truly is the way to live.

By Marcus Kelly

New Life Foursquare