Yesterday I worked my way through some of the 1,800 missionary news letters/emails I'll get in the next twelve months and one specifically asked that we "pray for patience" for the writers.
DON'T DO THAT...EVER!!
Look:
1. If you're Born Again, you've got God's Holy Spirit dwelling within you. (Ezekiel 36:26, 27)
2. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (Galatians 5:22-23), so you've ALREADY got patience and don't need to ask for more.
3. If you ask for patience, you're asking to get hammered by the trials that produce it as James 1:2-5 says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ("worketh patience" in the KJV) And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom [my emphasis], let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
4. USE the patience you've already got and ask for wisdom to know how what you're going through is "working together for your good" as Romans 8:28-29 says, including the possibility that you're being conformed to the image of the Suffering Servant!!
Got this straight?
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