The Fruit of the Spirit - Patience – Trusting God's Timing (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you once again for taking this time to be with us as we spend time in God's word and a few moments in prayer. This week, we've been gleaning different understandings and different thoughts on the fruit of the Spirit and today, we'll be talking about patience, which is trusting in God's timing. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 2, "Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love." Why is waiting so difficult? Have you ever noticed how impatient we get when we don't like to wait in traffic, we get frustrated when the internet is slow, we expect immediate responses to messages, we don't want to wait, and sometimes we even don't like to wait for our prayers to be answered. We live in an instant world, but often God teaches us or takes us through processes to bring those results. Many of God's greatest blessings come in seasons of waiting. Patience is one of the clearest signs that the Holy Spirit is shaping our character. God never uses the seasons of waiting to punish us, rather He uses it to prepare us. When we pray for a breakthrough and experience a delay, God is usually executing one of these three purposes. Firstly, character formation. God cares about our character, who we become, He wants to nurture our character. Two, He protects us from unripe blessings. What does this mean? A blessing given out of season can become a burden. God delays certain provisions only after our character is shaped and molded. And thirdly, orchestrating a greater testimony. God shifts seasons behind scenes, He coordinates people, events, and the hearts so that when finally, those breakthroughs arrive, it brings maximum glory to God and maximum goodness to you and me. Patience produces maturity. James chapter, 1 verse 4 says, "Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." We look at the example of Joseph where he received dreams from God as a teenager, but he didn't become a ruler of Egypt overnight. Before the palace came, he was rejected by his brothers, he was thrown into a pit, put into prison, falsely accused, imprisoned. For 13 years, Joseph waited, yet every day prepared him for leadership. And when the time was right, in a single day, he moved from the prison to the palace. Patience helps us to respond with grace. Patience is not just waiting on God; it is about showing grace to people. People will disappoint us, people will misunderstand us, they may hurt us. Patience allows us to respond with grace rather than in anger. David spares King Saul. David had two opportunities to King Saul who had been trying to kill him. Instead of taking revenge, David trusted in God's timing. Patience is not passive waiting; it is active trust. God's delays are never His denials. While you and I are waiting for God to fulfill His promises, He's using these seasons to shape our character, to deepen our faith, and to prepare that perfect plan that He has for you and me. May we walk in patience to receive every blessing that God has for us. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for your promise of your word that you are faithful to keep your promises. Lord, we pray that each one of us, no matter where we are in our lives, maybe we are waiting for your hand to touch us, we pray that we will wait with expectancy, with hope, with trust, knowing that you are a faithful God, we thank you, and we bless you, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Thank you for tuning in to Living Supernaturally, for more resources to strengthen your spiritual walk, please visit apcwo.org.

Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week's theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week's devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.