Devotional thoughts tagged as: 'patience'


Waiting Quietly for God's Response

It is good that one should both hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:26

The 5 poems in the Book of Lamentations, chapters 1-5, focus on the capture and destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans in 586 B.C.E. There is a bitter realism in the book of Lamentations. This book presents a vivid picture of death and destruction. Yet Lamentations lifts up suffering as a threat to God's purpose in history. The third poem or third chapter of Lamentations is the climax of prayer focusing on dealing with suffering and asking God to help the nation of Israel deal with its suffering.

Patience is a hard virtue to practice when your life has been turned upside down by war or natural disasters. Take time to study the 3rd chapter of the Book of Lamentations and ask yourself, Do I have the necessary patience to wait quietly for God to respond to my prayers?


What Is Patience?

We eat fast foods, consume computer information and honk our horns at others. We are rudely impatient. To talk of doing things in God's time bewilders us.

Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers in Genesis 37. His life would be changed forever. Joseph's life had been protected while he was with his father. Now he was to go through a time of testing and learning to be patient in Egypt.

However, while Joseph was learning to be patient, he used the time to develop his gift of dream interpretation in prison. God was to turn Joseph from a dreamer to an interpreter of dreams. Joseph, when standing before Pharaoh would tell him, dream interpretation was a gift from God.

Is there a spiritual link between using Godly patience to develop the personal gifts God has given you? Check out the story of Joseph in Genesis and judge for yourself.


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