Patient Decisions
By Margaret D. Mitchell
Week of April 17, 2022
Patience is critical to unlocking our destinies and fulfilling our calls. God will release us to move forward as we mature in patience. So, in patience, we find freedom.
Patience is a fruit of The Spirit, not a slow-down or a denial to our heart’s desires. It’s not a waste of time. No, impatience is what causes us to get locked down.
If there is one lesson I have had to learn (and am still growing in) it’s daily patience.
When we love God, we desire to do life His way. And this desire is our fuel to go deeper in trust. When we trust God implicitly by faith, we rest as we grow in the freedom of patience. It also helps us to know that patience will lead us to making right decisions, where we can flow like a river in God’s best. Impatience, on the other hand, provokes us to jump ahead and grab counterfeits out of fear of lack.
God’s truth is that He is enough as our Source of provision. His perfect love casts out fear. His grace is sufficient to help us where we are right now, even if it feels like goals are taking a long time. He is for us and has our best at heart.
In this season, where we’ve learned to put God first, He is opening up His windows of first-rate blessings we cannot contain. Seconds are not an option as we continue to practice our faith walk into manifest fulfillment. This requires the patience of submission so we don’t stop short.
God is leading us in small things to show us the way to go, as He brings us into bigger manifest blessings. He will consistently open our eyes to see and apprehend His best. We must continue to let faith in His Spirit be our guide. There is no reason to fear because, when we walk with Him in His ways, we will ultimately prove victorious for His glory. This, of course, requires belief.
Biblically, I believe Jacob struggled with impatience. I believe it was a big factor in him having to labor for the love of his life, Rebecca, for seven years. God used this labor of love to work the fruit of patience in Jacob. Jacob started out as an immature, selfish grabber. If he had continued along this path, he would have self-destructed. Therefore, patience was necessary for Jacob to survive. God knew Jacob had to come up higher in order to walk out his Divine lineage. God knew that the best way to re-establish Jacob’s foundation was to mature him deeply in patience through long-suffering.
James 1:4 NKJ says, "…let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."
So, in long-suffering, we tend to run to God, where He proves Himself faithful to us. We come to know God as our as Provider for all we need (Matthew 6:11, Psalms 73:26). In this process, we turn our focus on God and come to realize that we don’t have to compete with anyone else for anything else.
We’ve all walked through various types of suffering. Holy scripture makes it clear that no one leaves this earth without going through some trouble. Holy Bible also reveals that God will use it all for good.
Once we make it through times of testing and trials successfully and prove out a necessary level of patience, we are expected to follow through by making Godly decisions. This is how we receive God’s best outward flow of blessings like a river. Therefore, patience is part of our foundation of hope for making wise decisions.
I believe Paul demonstrated this in his release from jail in Acts 16. I believe that Paul had been prepared through long-suffering and had proven himself mature in patience to the level God required of him at that time. As a result, he was able to wisely choose to praise God and receive manifest release from bondage, rather than allow his soul to lock down in despair.
As Paul handled his circumstances wisely, he didn’t have to suffer long. He had learned what to do and didn’t hesitate to trust God, even though he didn’t know how long his release from jail would take. Paul had nothing else to prove in this regard. He only had to demonstrate the freedom-by-faith that Jesus taught him.
We see this again when Paul shook the snake from his hand shortly before he laid his hands on a man, who received supernatural healing. Paul demonstrated that sufferings didn’t control him. They only prepared him. In his patience, Paul demonstrated clarity above confusion in the crowd of onlookers (Acts 28:5-6). Paul shared a soundbite of wisdom and firmly established, by agreement with God’s way, that there was no room for despair in his life. Paul would not slow down to the counterfeit of self-pity.
In all this, we see that Paul grew to operate in a new trajectory, where he processed quickly. And we can, too. As God continues to bring us into His river of blessing, where much flows rapidly, He will continue to make us ready to process wisely.
Many have passed the patience test and are now in position to receive God’s greater manifest flow of blessings with wisdom, grace, and peace. They have come into the clearing and already know, deeply in their souls, what is right. They have grown in the love of God to the point of fearlessness for the level they’re now on. They have already begun to experience and are now demonstrating having gone from lack to luster for God’s glory.
So, Lord, Thank You for getting us fully there. Continue to lead us with Your secret wisdom. May we experience, even more, that following You brings us into Your brightness and glory as we honor You (Psalms 73:24). In Jesus’ mighty Name. Amen.
Margaret D. Mitchell is the Founder of God's Love at Work, a marketplace outreach purposed to share God's greatest power source - the love of Christ.
Originally published Sunday, 17 April 2022.
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