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reports, reviews, thoughts, news (and fun) posted by Gary Ware

Category Archives: Patience


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Trials: The Watchdogs For Impatience (via Zac Eswine)

We may feel that we need patience to grow in order to persevere through trials.
Zac Eswine observes that trials reveal the impatience which manifests and lurks in our lives.
The growth of patience is a greater blessing than the departure of trials.
From Eswine:

The joke in Christian circles throughout my life has been, “Pray for anything except patience. You don’t want to see what God will give you if you ask for that. Praying for patience is dangerous.”
I’ve laughed and told this joke. Now I think the joke is on me. I never realised how the joke presumes that one can follow Jesus without patience. It also assumes that God will not bother with patience in our lives unless we ask for it. I have been wrong on both counts. One assumption in the joke is true: patience is often learned within the context of trial. The trials seem like interruptions to our otherwise good lives. But more often that not. the trials become the dogs that bark at the impatience and haste that sneak into the halls of our lives. We wouldn’t see the intruder lurking to harm us without such barking. And impatience does harm to us. In God’s eyes, it will do more harm to us than our trials. (James 1:2-4)
Without patience, love is distorted; faith is not possible; hope fails. Impatience violates love, hurries us into walking by sight, and usurps Go by putting the fulfillment of our hopes into our own hands.

Zac Eswine, Sensing Jesus, Crossway, 2013, pp 272-273.


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Love Is Not Irritable (via Philip Ryken & Desiring God)

Love is not irritable, the Bible tells us.
Irritability is something that can grow over time.
Familiarity and relationship express themselves in passive/aggressive carping, venting, language and tone that would not happen if the relationship was newer or more distanced.
It can be a sign we’re taking someone or something for granted, or believe we’re in a position where their feelings don’t matter so much.
Philip Ryken talks about irritability in this video, originally posted on Desiring God.


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A Prayer for Stewarding Our Anger Well (via Scotty Smith)

Someone needs this prayer from Scotty Smith tomorrow.

A Prayer for Stewarding Our Anger Well

“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Eph. 4:26-27
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools. Eccl 7:9
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. James 1:19-20

Dear Lord Jesus, I can think of certain door-to-door salespeople I wish I’d never let across the threshold. One toe through my front door, one minute into their “pitch,” and I’m wishing I could usher them on their way. Oh, that I’d be that wise when the devil approaches my heart and home, for he only come to rob, kill and destroy.
Of course, if he came knocking in a red jumpsuit with a three-pronged pitchfork in hand, sporting sixties-style beatnik facial hair, I’d have no problem turning him away. Unfortunately, he often comes in the back door through my impatience, irritation, aggravation, and anger.

Jesus, help me steward my anger.
Lord Jesus, anger has always been a confusing emotion to me—one I’ve tried to avoid, one I’ve tried to convince myself I don’t really have a problem with. I’ve been on the destructive end of anger and rage. I remember the fear, the confusion and the shame.
I don’t wish such a crushing of the spirit on anyone, but I certainly own the ways my anger has nonetheless brought harm to people I love. Though I don’t get very loud and large, I can seep and leak passive aggressive arrogance and spitefulness. Have mercy on me, Lord, and free me.

You’re not telling me never to be angry but to be careful not to sin in my anger. Jesus, help me be angry at the right time, for the right reasons, in the right way. Only you can redirect the wasted energy of my anger into patience and loving-kindness. Only you can replace my idol of control—the fuel for much of my anger, with a greater worship of you and submission to your purposes.
Right now, Lord Jesus, I throw open every door and window of my heart. Come on in and establish multiple footholds of mercy, grace, and compassion. I abandon myself to your beauty and bounty today. So very Amen I pray in your peerless and priceless name.


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The Antidote To Self-Pity (via Mark Altrogge)

I need a double dose of this today.

“Self-pity is a vacuum into which gratitude cannot enter. In fact, self-pity and thanksgiving cannot coexist. They are mutually exclusive. Although thanksgiving is the antidote to this poison, few bound by self-pity will take the foray into expressing thanks for all the blessings they do have.” – William P Farley, “The Poison of Self-Pity”

Thanksgiving is the antidote to self-pity.
Self-pity is a weed that grows in the garden of expectations. I expect an easy life. I won’t have to suffer. Things should always go my way.
Self-pity says things like: I can’t believe this is happening to me. I don’t deserve this. How could a loving God do this to me? You’ve got to be kidding me. Why does this have to happen now?
Self-pity forgets all God’s benefits. It fails to give thanks. Instead it focuses on what it doesn’t have. What it thinks it should have but doesn’t.
That’s why its antidote is giving thanks. So if you’re entrenched in self-pity, or have recently been slipping into it, you can turn it around.

Start thanking God for anything and everything you can. Thank him for saving you and forgiving your sins. For giving you eternal life. For giving you his Holy Spirit. For adopting you into his family. For his steadfast love that never ceases.
Thank him for his mercies. For NOT giving you what you DO deserve – his condemnation and wrath. For being your refuge and strength. For being a sympathetic high priest who knows what you’re going through and cares about you in it. For any respite or relief from your pain, for the gift of sleep, for friends who pray for you and care about you.
Thanksgiving is a fight. Especially when you don’t feel like it. It’s a fight against self-pity. It’s a fight of faith.

Thanksgiving is the antidote to self- pity.
Write that down. Read the above quote again. Get a journal and record all God’s benefits. Thank God for as many things as you can each day – your food, your sight, hearing, taste and touch. For whatever provision God supplies.
Thank God that he is using your suffering to make you like Christ, to produce perseverance, character and hope. And thank Jesus that someday he’ll wipe away every tear from your eyes.

So if you catch yourself asking why is this happening to me, grab yourself, shake yourself and start to offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving. You’ll find joy will begin to trickle back into your soul.