The other day I was speaking with a really good friend of
mine and the topic of patience came up.
Lately God has just had this word in my mind over and over again, and it
has led me to write some blogs about patience.
During my conversation with my friend, he said a phrase that really helped
to tie everything together. In previous
blog post I have written about being slow to anger, which requires you to put
your mind at rest and be in a state of patience. Another blog I wrote I was led to break down
the word patience into two words: pati meaning suffering; and ence meaning
state of. In patience we are in a state
of suffering, but with patience you experience inner peace. The suffering is in the waiting because in
our flesh we want to handle the situation, but patience requires us to have
faith and trust. The suffering we experience
is the battle we choose to fight in giving up control and letting go. Once we let go and put into practice having
faith and trust, then we experience the peace in patience. That was the phrase that my friend expressed
to me, “Experiencing the peace in patience”.
Being patient and reacting with actions of slow
and steadiness provides us the opportunity to take a deep breath and
relax. During the battle in our mind and
heart we are at this tug of war between the flesh and our spirit man. The flesh wants to keep control, and that is
one of the reasons the world is the way it is today. We all are longing for dominance and to have
control of every situation in our life, but what if the real true battle is
just learning to let go? For so long I
was unhappy with my life and always in a fight to somehow maintain control of
all my situations, because in my mind I was the solution to my problems. What I came to find out was that I was the
problem, and if I kept fighting the battle, I was going to fight myself to the
grave. What I really was longing for was
just peace, but I kept getting in the way.
Until the day finally came when I threw my hands up and said Lord, I can’t
do this anymore, I am tired. In that
moment when I stopped fighting for control and gave it to the Lord was the moment, I started to experience the peace in patience. It makes more sense to me now, the phrase slow
and steady wins the race. When one
reacts slowly their physical actions might seem as though they aren’t doing anything,
but what is happening is that the mind is being utilized first to respond
properly and do what is right. From there
we develop an attitude of expectation, knowing that all one has to do is be
obedient to His will and do, and do with a joyful heart. That joy comes from experiencing the inner
peace in patience. “My dear brothers and
sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak
and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the
righteousness that God desires.” (NIV James 1:19-20).