Divine Patience

“He has made everything beautiful in its time and that there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under Heaven. “

Ecclesiastes 3:1,11

Recently one of my girlfriends informed me that God was placing “divine patience” in me, despite my resistance to receiving it. I’d been going through a tremendously hard time trying to figure out just what God was doing, and WHY it was taking so long.  I do not recommend trying to figure out what God is doing. It’s very stressful.

But I believe I now know. In  order  for God to produce a really BIG piece of fruit, in your life, it has to go through all the cycles of seeding. A seed has to die before it can live. ( see 1 Corinthians 15:36) The coating and protection over the seed  has to disintegrate, first.  It has to have the right soil, the right amount of sunlight, and the right amount of water in order for it  to grow.

Did you know a seed has its own food supply? It also grows down into the ground before it grows up and outward to produce a stem. It has to be rooted, first.

Sometimes God uses patience to help us endure  the same process. Patience is a fruit of the spirit. For God to describe patience as a fruit, is a blessing. (see Galatians 5:22,23)  Fruit is defined as “anything produced or accruing; product, result, or effect; return or profit. To enjoy the produce of.” The Bible says against such character, no one can  bring a charge.

I recall my waiting period to  be full of frustration, feeling  stressed, and tremendously upset with God. I heard Joyce Meyers say once: “When you feel frustrated, your flesh is in the way.” To me, that meant there should be less of me and more of God’s perspective in my life.

So … to get my flesh out of the way, I decided to simply call a solemn fast. I moved everything – and I do mean everything, out of the way so I could clearly hear from God. My friend who gave me the advice earlier…did something similar. She had been trying to fulfill a dream to do something for years she could not figure out. She said “ Once I stopped trying to figure it out…” that’s when God stepped in. This morning I released something to God I could not handle. It  felt so much better to not try to figure it out.

So, in the midst of our Red Sea situations… we both pondered a few things. For me, it was my lack of control over it all, and for her the need to receive  her harvest- God’s way. I just spoke to her the other day and God answered her prayer. He figured it out.

Here’s what she said to me: “So, here I am.  Now, I am waiting for His leading on what His next provision will be for me. Divine patience reminds me that yes, I can make things happen, but when He does it for me, it comes out much better!”

Another valuable piece she taught me was to ‘pay attention to the condition of your heart‘ when you struggle in this manner. She said : “We must be willing to accept the situation as it comes. Especially since it may not be in the way we wanted it or at the time we expected it.

Can I be content with His provision if it does not match my expectations?  The acceptance of the way things have turned out and are continuing to move is part of the divine patience.”  Yes, we still have to “wait on Him” to wait on God to move, but we can believe he will take care of us in the process of it all, and have our best interest at heart.

Wow.. what powerful encouragement today. I believe I will choose to surrender to the cycle of my seeding process. God knows how that miracle takes place much better than I.

Selah.

I Corinthians 15:35-38  The Message Bible

“Some skeptic is sure to ask, “Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this ‘resurrection body’ look like?” If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a “dead” seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.”