Love is Patient (1 Corinthians 13:4)

This week must be Max Lucado week, as there have been so many posts from this wonderful man of God. But if ever there was a lesson that I needed to learn one day, this is it, and I am pleased to be able to share it! 


Patience is the red carpet upon which God’s grace approaches us.
The Greek word used here for patience is a descriptive one. It figuratively means “taking a long time to boil.” Think about a pot of boiling water. What factors determine the speed at which it boils? The size of the stove? No. The pot? The utensil may have an influence, but the primary factor is the intensity of the flame. Water boils quickly when the flame is high. It boils slowly when the flame is low. Patience “keeps the burner down.”
Helpful clarification, don’t you think? Patience isn’t naive. It doesn’t ignore misbehavior. It just keeps the flame low. It waits. It listens. It’s slow to boil. This is how God treats us. And, according to Jesus, this is how we should treat others.
He once told a parable about a king who decides to settle his accounts with his debtors. His bookkeeper surfaces a fellow who owes not thousands or hundreds of thousands but millions of dollars. The king summarily declares that the man and his wife and kids are to be sold to pay the debt. Because of his inability to pay, the man is about to lose everything and everyone dear to him. No wonder “the man fell down before the king and begged him, “Oh, sir, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.” (Matt. 18:26–27 NLT, emphasis mine)
The word patience makes a surprise appearance here. The debtor does not plead for mercy or forgiveness; he pleads for patience. Equally curious is this singular appearance of the word. Jesus uses it twice in this story and never again. Jesus reserves the word for one occasion to make one point. Patience is more than a virtue for long lines and slow waiters. Patience is the red carpet upon which God’s grace approaches us.
Had there been no patience, there would have been no mercy. But the king was patient, and the man with the multimillion-dollar debt was forgiven. But then the story takes a left turn. The freshly forgiven fellow makes a beeline from the courthouse to the suburbs. There he searches out a guy who owes him some money.
“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. “Be patient and I will pay it,” he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and jailed until the debt could be paid in full.” (vv. 28–30 NLT, emphasis mine)
The king is stunned. How could the man be so impatient? How dare the man be so impatient! The ink of the CANCELED stamp is still moist on the man’s bills. Wouldn’t you expect a little Mother Teresa–ness out of him? You’d think that a person who’d been forgiven so much would love much. But he didn’t. And his lack of love led to a costly mistake. The unforgiving servant is called back to the castle. “Then the angry king sent the man to prison until he had paid every penny” (Matt. 18:34 NLT).
Whew! we sigh. Glad that story is a parable. It’s a good thing God doesn’t imprison the impatient in real life. Don’t be so sure he doesn’t. Self-absorption and ingratitude make for thick walls and lonely jails.
Impatience still imprisons the soul. For that reason, our God is quick to help us avoid it. He does more than demand patience from us; he offers it to us. Patience is a fruit of his Spirit. It hangs from the tree of Galatians 5:22: “The Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience.” Have you asked God to give you some fruit? Well I did once, but … But what? Did you, h’m, grow impatient? Ask him again and again and again. He won’t grow impatient with your pleading, and you will receive patience in your praying.
And while you’re praying, ask for understanding. “Patient people have great understanding” (Prov. 14:29). Why? Because patience always hitches a ride with understanding. The wise man says, “A man of understanding holds his tongue” (Prov. 11:12 NIV). He also says, “A man of understanding is even-tempered” (Prov. 17:27 NIV). Don’t miss the connection between understanding and patience. Before you blow up, listen up. Before you strike out, tune in.
“God is being patient with you” (2 Pet. 3:9). And if God is being patient with you, can’t you pass on some patience to others?



From
A Love Worth Giving:
Living in the Overflow of God’s Love
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2002) Max Lucado

Trials and Wisdom

The passage from the Bible is James 1:2-8 - reproduced here for your info:

²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
(NIV)

Essentially, there's three questions that arise from this passage - but there are many more.

1. What does it mean to be joyful in times of trial?
2. What does it mean to lack wisdom?
3. What does it mean by saying that we will be double-minded and unstable?

I really wish I had my reference on this first point, as it explained it SO well. It asked exactly what type of joy one should have (of course, the joy in knowing that God is still in control, as well as in the knowledge that one has eternal life), but under what circumstances. Should one be joyful BECAUSE of the trial? Should one be joyful IN SPITE OF the trial - brush it off? Should on be joyful once the trial IS OVER? However, looking at these questions and the text, it does not seem that either of these is correct. The text says that one should be consider it pure joy WHEN one receives trials BECAUSE our faith gets tested when we face trials, and when our faith is tested, we learn to persevere. Persevere in what? In our faith. Because we have faith that God is in control to the last, that our salvation WILL BE MADE COMPLETE in Him, and that we will spend eternity with Him. Only when we come to the end of our lives will we be made complete, lacking nothing.

Now here comes a problem. There are trials, and there are trials. Some of them we cause ourselves, but then others come about BECAUSE WE ARE CHRISTIANS. Not because of anything that we have done, but because Satan attacks us because of Him Who we serve.

Concerning the trials that are of our own creation; we plaster ourselves into corners, make mistakes, and walk down the wrong paths - all through choices that we make. However, God uses these opportunities to teach us - but we need to ask Him for His wisdom. It is only His wisdom that teaches us and enables us to get out of corners.

The trials that are NOT of our own creation, however, are there purely because of the One that we serve Who is in us. When this happens, one CAN be glad of the trial, because it means that we are worthy to be tracked down and attacked by Satan. It means we're doing the right thing, walking in God's will and able to be called His children, His heirs. These trials also need wisdom - to even SEE that this is why we are going through the trial, let alone how to deal with it.

Now, with regard to the double-mindedness and being tossed about by the waves, one can pretty clearly see where this comes in: that without the wisdom from God, we haven't got a clue what to do, and end up going nowhere with a lot of fuss and bother, whereas if we listened to Him and had faith that He would provide us with the wisdom that we need, we'd go places very quickly with little fuss.