Good morning,
Patience is not an attribute common among men and women in today’s culture. James Smith tells us why it is important to be patient.
Patient waiting
(James Smith, “The Believer’s Companion in Seasons of Affliction and Trouble” 1842)
“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Romans 8:25
Patience supposes trials, difficulties, and burdens–it is a grace of which we have much need on earth.
The objects of our hope are . . .
all future,
all good, and
all promised.
There is not an evil, but we hope to be one day rid of!
There is not a blessing, but we hope one day to enjoy it!
This present world is a land of hope.
Heaven is a land of fruition.
The highest object of our hope is perfect holiness, exact conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ–to be brought to such a state, that we shall glorify our God in every desire, thought, feeling, and action.
We hope for the period when we shall say:
farewell sickness–welcome perpetual health;
farewell sorrow–welcome everlasting joy;
farewell sin–welcome perfect purity;
farewell ignorance–welcome perfect knowledge;
farewell desertion–welcome the eternal presence of my God;
farewell death–welcome everlasting life!
Do we hope for these things? Then let us patiently wait for them.
The blessings we expect are worth waiting for–they are laid up for us in Heaven!
Faith believes the message respecting them,
hope longs to be put in possession,
love incites to grateful acknowledgments and holy walking,
ardent desire wants immediate enjoyment–
but patience is willing to wait. Her language is, “All the days of my appointed time I will wait, until my change comes.”
Seasons of trouble seem long; but what are the longest seasons compared with eternity–an eternity of perfect blessedness?
Patient waiting insures an enlarged experience of Jehovah’s love and goodness. Your present journey will lead you to a place of repose, “where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.” Your troubles will end well–everlastingly well!
~ ~ ~ ~
Are we willing to patiently wait?
Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001
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