Today is our regularly scheduled One Word at a Time Blog Carnival, hostessed by my wonderful, fabulous friend, Bridget Chumbley. To read the other posts in the carnival, please visit her site by clicking HERE.
Today’s topic is “patience” and I have to be honest, that’s not something that I have a whole lot of. I’ve always been a high-strung, excitable type of person. I once joked that sometimes I run so far ahead of God that He has to grab my ponytail and jerk me back in line.
But maybe my excitement isn’t a totally bad thing.
When I asked God what to write about patience today, He said, “sometimes, what we call patience is just complacency.”
Now, I am in no way advocating distrusting God (which is often the root of impatience—at least in my own life) or acting outside His will. But at the same time, how often have I known I was supposed to do something (witness to someone, pray for someone, take on a new role in ministry) but I’ve shrugged off that knowledge, telling myself that I need to pray about it just a little longer or train for it just a little harder or wait to be asked or wait for a sign.
Okay, maybe I’m just talking to myself here…
But in case I’m not, let me encourage you to do the same thing God has encouraged me to do:
1. Seek Him constantly.
2. Obey Him immediately.
3. Trust Him completely.
And since today’s topic is patience, let me ask you for ONE MORE DAY of patience. TOMORROW (Wednesday) is the drawing for the Mad Church Disease giveaway. In case you missed this the first time around, you can read about the giveaway HERE. I will stop taking entries at 9 PM EST on Tuesday night and will publish the names of the winners of my three copies at midnight Wednesday morning. If you have any questions, you can leave a comment here or email me at smsalter@yahoo.com.
About Sarah Salter
Patience or procrastination? Dang! You mean I could have been calling it patience all these years?
Katdish, It’s all about the semantics, isn’t it?
You are too kind, Sarah.
You weren’t talking only to yourself… you stepped on my toes a bit too! I also had to laugh at katdish mentioning the other ‘p’ word!
Seek, Obey Trust … COMPLETELY? That is so hard … 🙂 Thanks Sarah.
It is hard to tell the difference sometimes, esp. when I’m having to take a risk and get out of my comfort zone. I just pray for the wisdom to know the diff.
Bridget, Russell, & Bonnie – Thanks for your comments! It IS hard. I guess if it was easy, we wouldn’t learn anything from it and it wouldn’t help us grow. But the key, I think, is intimacy with God. I was lying in bed last night (after I posted this little blurb) and I realized a song was going through my head. The song? “He hideth my soul in the cleft of a rock.” And I just had this visual of God & I sitting, dry, in a cave, while the storm rages outside. When I remember the peace that’s found in the cave with Him, it makes it MUCH easier to Seek… Obey… Trust… Patiently.
Sometimes we confuse impatience with passion. And God gives us a passion. What we need is wisdom to tell the difference.
Amen, Glynn!
Great post and great comments. I’ve been on both sides of this fence, but I’d much rather be right in step with Him. That seems to take a lot of work (and patience) though!
Great call. I believe that patience is the virtue that is found between worry and complacency. It is about being content in the trials that come, not worrying, not hiding from truth.
Yes, patience gets confused with a lot of different things. I like the combination (I like how it sounds anyway):
Procrastinacience.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
Perfect timing in sharing a piece on patience. As it is written in 1Corinthians 13, the chapter about love it tells us that Love is patience. ” Charitly suffereth long and is kind…” verse 4. It is wonderful to witness and read your writings…keep it up for all you take the time to read, learn and share. Dios te bendiga.
Dang. One thing about reading all these posts on patience is — I learn a lot and am challenged to let go of my impatience and open up to new ideas.
thank you! You’re given me another change to look at my impatience masking itself as procrastination and complacency and a host of other things it’s not!
Hey Sarah–I meant to comment yesterday, but I decided to be patient and wait a day–or was that procrastinating?
Listening to God–sometimes I need to be patient enough to do that. Great reminder.