Tea Time 4-11-18

Spiritual Refocus

Recently, God has put it on my heart to discuss patience. I believe patience is often the trickiest of the fruits of the Spirit; with God, with others, and with ourselves. We often feel God is slow in keeping his promises, or we feel like our patience for our family is dwindling. It is at these times, when we feel like tearing our hair out, that we need to turn to God the most. With this in mind, I have decided to comprise ten Bible verses on patience that we can turn to when we feel impatient. Every so often I like to write these spiritual refocuses just to remind me and my readers that God is our focus, and should be the person we turn to in good and bad times. Please enjoy April’s spiritual refocus!

1: Romans 8:5- “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

2: 2 Peter 3:9- “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

3: 1 Timothy 1:12-17- “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”

4: Isaiah 40:31- “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

5: 1 Corinthians 13:4- “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.”

6: Luke 8:15- “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

7: James 5:11- “Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

8: Ecclesiastes 7:8-9- “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.”

9: Psalm 130:5- “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;”

10: 2 Corinthians 6:4-6- “But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;"