If you’ve known me longer than five minutes, then you’re already aware that I have a deficiency. I lack patience for all the things. There are several (pretty much all) of the fruits of the Spirit of which I could use a double helping, but patience is the one that eludes me more than anything else.
When my computer freezes, I want to throw it. I’m actually proud of the amount of self-control that has kept me from doing so! When people in my house don’t do what I ask them to do using my kind words, I use loud, emphatic words to make myself heard (and get mad and make everyone else mad, too. Beside the point). And when I struggle at doing a challenging task, I somehow expect to be the prodigy who gets it right on first try rather than struggle. When that isn’t the case, I get frustrated and question my ability to do anything at all. I have zero patience.
This morning I read a devotional centered on Galatians 6:9, which says, “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
Then the devotional writer Katie Farrell says, “Often we can be the reason for the delay in seeing His plan.” We, as in ME! I am the reason God’s plan in my life takes longer to come to fruition than it’s supposed to. Um…RUDE!!! And 100% on point. I am so stubborn and unteachable that God has to spend time sorting me out, decades even, before we can move forward with the plan. Then, I’m so impatient for Him to give me that harvest of blessing He promises that I fail to recognize that I am my own worst obstacle to receiving blessing.
Today I ask you to pray for me to overflow with the fruit of patience, but also maybe pray that God builds it in me WITHOUT presenting me with opportunities to exercise patience because see above. Together let’s not give up doing good and trusting in God’s plan for us. And let’s not make it harder on ourselves by getting in God’s way.