Patience
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”
If ever we needed patience it is in these days, which we are living at the moment. Of course, patience comes through hardship.
As a young man, I watched a cowboy movie. I love those movies and I will never forget them as long as I live... There was the cowboy, I think it was Clint Eastwood, sitting at an eating house with his friend. They had been riding for days. They were dusty, they were tired and they had a big plate of food in front of them. As they were tucking into their food the saloon door swung open and in walked a young gun-slinger.
And he had two guns, one on either side. He shouted out to Clint Eastwood: “Stand up, I want to take you on.” These two old men just carried on eating their food, eventually, after a lot of persistence by this young man the old cowboy looked up from his food, pushed his hat back on his head and said: “Boy, you see these wrinkles? They ain’t wrinkles... They are war maps.” And with that, he carried on eating his food and the youngster just ran out of that saloon as quick as he could.
You might be listening this morning, saying: “Lord, I am serving you with everything that I have and I am just not getting the breakthrough. Why?”
Well, you know the gardener, when he prunes back the trees, he prunes the ones that are bearing the most fruit, the most severely. “But,” you say, “it is so painful.” Yes, it is but The Gardener has got holes in his hands because He has been crucified for you and me. He is pruning all that dead wood off you and Me... it's more painful for Him than it is for us. God walks with us through the fire - He doesn’t take us out of the fire.
If we go to Daniel and the story of Meshach, Shadrach and Abed-Nego -
Remember, they would not bow the knee to Nebuchadnezzar and he was so angry he threw them into a furnace. But look what it says:
“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Daniel 3:25
Remember Jesus says He will not take us out of the fire, but He will walk with you and me through the fire. If you know the Lord, you don’t have to ask why you are going through what you are going through. Just trust Him. If I look back on my spiritual journey thus far, the times that I have been the closest to Jesus have been the times when I have been the most severely challenged.
His grace is sufficient for you and me. Have a wonderful Sunday.
God bless you.