Part 5 – How to reflect God’s Love through Patience part 2?
Patrick J van Rensburg
Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV) 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
What to do when you in life’s waiting room?
- Remember there is a natural delay between planting and harvesting
Ecclesiates3:1 To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot
- Remember there is an unseen battle going-on
Ephesians 6:12 (ESV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
- Remember God is preparing us for a blessing
Romans 8:24-25 The Message (MSG) 22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pains. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pains. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
4. You are good company while you are waiting
Psalm 118:5-6 “Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
5 . Joy always comes after the wait
Psalm 30:1-5 ESV Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
After Jesus was crucified, there was a time of darkness that seemed to overtake any future joy. In fact, the devil thought he had destroyed the only hope of redemption mankind would ever have. He attacked the hearts and the minds of those who had followed Jesus with overwhelming hopelessness. Then, three days later, an earthquake occurred, the stone was rolled away, and the evidence of the Lord’s resurrection was witnessed for the first time.
Mathew 12:40 ESV “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” Your night season may be longer than three days, but the morning will break upon your night season!
The word for endure in Hebrew means to lodge, stop over, pass the night — someone who lodges for a night, but then moves on. Can you relate to a night season that has remained or endured, and it would seem the enemy had his way? Years may pass; all may seem dormant, lifeless, and the promise unfulfilled, but eventually, the weeping that endured and even lodged for a night time will pass away, and the “sun” will break through.
Mathew 28:2-3 says, “There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.”
Just before the manifestation of the resurrection, there was a violent earthquake, as an angel descended from heaven and rolled the stone away. So, it is with us. Right before the night flees from before you, there may be a shaking, but that shaking has a purpose; it causes the “stone” to roll out of the way.
The Lord knows what it will take to get the roadblocks and hindrances out of the way. Sometimes in that process, things get shaken, but only to bring you to a place of fulfilment and joy!
Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
Ps 30:11 NLT You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
6. God always keeps his promises
In the waiting room you do not focus on what you can’t do. You focus on what God can do
Habakkuk 2:3 (CEV) At the time I have decided, my words will come true. You can trust what I say about the future. It may take a long time, but keep on waiting— it will happen!
4 things to do in waiting
- Write down the things that you have learned during the waiting so you don’t forget – otherwise you will go through it again.
Numbers 33:2 (NLT) At the Lord’s direction, Moses kept a written record of their progress.
- Act as though you already have it.
Mark 11:24 (NIV) 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
- Imitate the habits of strong faith
Philippians 4:9 (NLT) 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
These habits are:
- Keep on Praying – Matthew 7:7 (NIV) “Ask and it will be given to you;
- Keep on Serving – Waiter – Serving
- Keep on going to church – Hebrews 10:25 (NIV) not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing
- Keep on sowing – Ecclesiastes 11:6-8 (NLT) Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.
- Trust God instead of worrying
Matthew 6:27 “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself”
1 Peter 5:6, 7 “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”