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patience

God’s Patience with Us Has a Limit

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I Would Recommend Not Pushing It

Pastor Lisa shared with us that her husband Brian is very patient, however, he has a word that he uses when he has reached his limit. When this word comes out of his mouth, people are caught off guard and are a little surprised.

This word is…are you ready for it…ALRIGHT.

ALRIGHT, that will be enough.

God’s very patient with us as well, but He also has an ALRIGHT.

We can see this throughout the Old Testament of the Bible. The people would continually lose their way and start following the worldly ways of the people around them. God would give reminder after reminder until He would reach an ALRIGHT.

God reached one of His ALRIGHTS when His chosen people were conquered, their temple destroyed, and they were taken to Babylon. Later Persia conquered Babylon and they found themselves under Persia’s authority.

Then some years later, King Cyrus of Persia’s heart was moved to send the Jewish people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. God stirred the hearts of the priests, Levites, and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1-6).

We’ve all felt these kinds of nudging’s that we were supposed to do something. We may not be sure exactly what it is. We might feel that we’re not qualified to do that thing. We might think that thing is too hard or will take too long.

This kind of prodding is “HOLY DISCONTENT”.

This is what King Cyrus and the people going to Jerusalem felt. It was not an easy task. It was a long journey. When they got there, everything was in ruins, people had taken over what was left, and these people didn’t want to give it back.

There is a process for dealing with HOLY DISCONTENT.

  1. Wait on God – Everything in God’s time
  2. Trust in God – He won’t lead you on the wrong path
  3. Embrace the journey – This is where God has called you to
  4. Expect opposition – There will be push back from the naysayers
  5. Expect support – The support you need will be there when you need it
  6. Watch the plan unfold – This is the part that makes the journey worth it

Too often we ignore the HOLY DISCONTENTS in our lives. If we ignore them too long, God’s patience will wear thin, and we will get an ALRIGHT. Don’t push it because we are all given a limited time. As long as we are still alive, God will continue to give us HOLY DISCONTENTS, but there’s a limited time. Don’t wait!

Be Patient, the Day is Coming…You Can Count on it

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The Heart of the Advent Season is the Coming of Christ

We live in an “I want it now” society. We’ve been spoiled by the speed at which things move at. Instantaneous access to the internet on our hand-held devices, drive through restaurants, etc. Not that there is anything wrong with efficiency, but in the process, we’ve lost the ability to wait patiently.

This sense of immediacy makes us a demanding people.

It seems that this has always been the case. Throughout the Bible people were unwilling to wait for things to happen according to God’s timing and inevitably they would have to wait longer. They would take things in their own hands and then pay the price.

Jerimiah speaks to this in Chapter 33. He is sharing a message with the people. It was the promise of Jesus’ coming. They were feeling hopeless, and Jerimiah gave them hope.

Early on, Jerimiah was a preacher of righteousness, in the last chapter of his book, he speaks words of comfort. Before the people needed to be confronted, now they need to be comforted. Before they needed words of judgement, now they need words of grace. Before they deserved condemnation, now they need hope. So instead of offering a word of punishment, Jerimiah offers a word of promise.

Behold the days are coming.

Jerimiah uses the phrase, “The days are coming.” throughout his book. This is God’s promise to us of Christ’s coming. This doesn’t mean everything is going to be easy, it just means that that we’ve been promised something better.

During a live presentation of the Wizard of Oz the good witch Glinda was being lowered on to the stage when there was a problem, and she was left hanging above the stage. When something like this happens during a live performance there’s not much the actors can do other than improvise and wait patiently.

We need to do what we can and be patient with things that we have no control over.

We live in a fallen world. We can’t change that, but we can control how we live in it. We aren’t perfect, we are a people under construction.

Enjoy this season of Advent and the coming of Christ as we celebrate Christmas time.