PatienceSample

Faith  and Patience 

For our faith to mature we need patience.  The apostle Peter exhorts us to not grow complacent but to make every effort to respond to God’s promises by supplementing or adding to our faith. Building our faith isn’t a one-off experience. Seeing our faith grow takes time and patience.  Faith is like a muscle that needs to exercise over a period of time to grow.  Our faith walk is a daily patient journey. In a culture of instant gratification, we seldom take the time to patiently and actively add to our faith. 

We face different seasons in our life. Similar to the seasons in nature: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The seasons of life teach us patience and very few environments teach us about the seasons of life like a farm. As I was growing up on a farm, I realized from a young age that farmers plant their crops and then they wait patiently for the harvest to come. It is a beautiful process. The potential for a plant is locked up inside the seed, in the right environment a great harvest will come forth. We have great potential locked up inside of us, wait patiently for God. 

I love springtime, it is a season filled with the reward of patience. Before springtime it is winter, and I don’t know about you but it is definitely not my favorite season because all the trees are barren with no fruit, but soon they will be lush, green, filled with pink blossoms everywhere.  In winter, the seeds sown lay dormant and there are no signs of life. But then Spring arrives! Hebrews 11:1 reminds us that God’s promises lay dormant in our lives. Just like the seasons change. We can wait patiently and have faith that His promises will come to pass!

Application

How can you practically supplement your faith today?

Ask a believing friend to pray with you in regards to growing your faith.

Prayer

Dear God, help my patience to mature and help me daily to build my faith through your word. Amen