Patience In Tribulation

I was not a patient person in my younger days. I have gotten better, but I am still working on this with the Holy Spirit. I had and still have a lot to learn. I was and still am the type of person who wants things done now. I get easily annoyed when people are not on time, when people are not prepared, when my expectations are not met in a certain time period, when someone tells me they are going to do something and do not do it, when promises are made but not kept.

In my younger years, I prayed all the time for the Lord to give me patience, and oh boy, did He ever. All of the above items listed I had to endure for many years. I will give you a short account of the hardest lesson of patience I had to go through.

It was when my daughter was diagnosed at 3 ½ years old with bone cancer, Ewing’s Sarcoma. The waiting for answers was excruciating. The next was when she had a stroke, again the waiting was beyond excruciating, and then the final piece of this was when she went into heart failure. The patience that was necessary to trust the doctors, keep my family calm, and try to console and keep my daughter from exploding into darkness was overwhelming. Patience had to come into play. The only way her and I got through it all was faith and patience in the Lord. I didn’t know then, but I know now how much he loved her but also how much he loves me. 

Through this experience I have found love, peace, hope, and a relationship with Jesus that I didn’t know was possible. I thank Him every day for the lessons I have learned. It brought me closer to Him and my daughter is now, with Him.

I will tell you for awhile after this, I stopped praying for patience and instead prayed for knowledge and wisdom. Just recently this one fruit of the Spirit, patience, has been beckoning to my heart and mind. I have begun again to pray for patience. The one difference is I’m not afraid for Him to teach this wonderful attribute of the Spirit to me now. I believe that patience will lead me to a deeper hope, faith, love, peace, kindness, empathy and understanding toward others. I know it will bring me closer in my relationship with my Lord and Savior. That’s all that really matters to me.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Devo Written by Awaken Team Member, Char Miles