Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Life is a marathon not a sprint and we are called to run this ‘race of faith’ with patience. Without patience we will never achieve our purpose or our destination. We are not judged by how well we start but how we finish the race of faith. Patience gives us insight into our future and our purpose. To live purposefully and fruitfully we need patience. Our visions, goals and purpose cannot be accomplished unless we are willing to run with patience.
The Lord God gave Joseph two visions that kept him going for decades. Then he remembered his dreams about them (Genesis 42:9a). (Joseph had dreams about his future as a teenager; He remembered the dreams and not the treachery of the brothers, when you saw him after 22 years). To recollect the vision under pressure and persecution, calls for a truckload of patience.
Frustration and disappointment would make us angry and arrogant but patience nurtures perseverance. When the vision seems mutilated by unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances, patience calms the calamity of the soul. Patience teaches us to wait and not react impetuously. Patience stops self-proclaimed curses. Patience foresees the vision coming to fruition. Patience is the spiritual stamina that gives us the resilience to keep going and not give up the race of faith.
Patience makes us perseverant and purposeful:
1. Visionary: Patience makes us a visionary. Impatience fogs the brain with anxiety but patience fine-tunes our vision.
2. Virtuous: Patience makes us purposeful, fruitful and vitreous. Impatience, to see the fruit of our labour, will push us into disappointment and discouragement that kills purpose. A purposeful person will not engage in fruitfulness and futile thoughts, words or deeds.
3. Victorious: Patience will make us victorious as we endure the race of faith. Impatience self-sabotages purpose but patience are the legs that will carry us across the line of victory.
Run the race of faith patiently. Patience will make us visionaries, virtuous and victorious.
Prayer: Victorious Jesus, Let me not be impatient to see quick answers, quick blessing and quick breakthroughs but run this race with endurance and patience. Amen.
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