Patience Part Two
By Johnny Angel
In our first look at patience, we looked at God's patience. We found
that He is patient with everything He created and that He gives
enough time for all to seek Him and to know Him. In addition, we
learned that God does not have to answer as soon as we call on Him.
Today, I would like to look at a few characters in the Bible and see
how they had to be patient. A few nights ago, I was really down and
stressed about some things. I'm going nuts waiting to get back to
school and all the things I get to do there at church and school. In
Sunday School this week, someone said to me that maybe God has me
at home so I can learn a few things. I know the Lord is showing me a
few things. He is also giving me time with my family and giving me a
chance to organize some materials to use when I get back. But I am
impatient and wanting to be back to my same old schedule now.
I was listening to a sermon one time in which the pastor introduced
Abraham by singing a line from the children's song, "Father Abraham".
Not everyone caught it, but just imagine someone being in the middle
of a great sermon and bursting into song and doing the motions at the
same time. If possible, imagine me doing that right now so you can get
a laugh.
Anyway, I felt led to open the Bible the other night. When I did this, I
came across Abraham in Genesis 15. God promises that Abraham will
have a son though he and his wife are both very old. Not only that, but
God promises that Abraham will have many descendants. We are
those many descendants. Not only that, have you ever looked at the
first chapter of Matthew and wondered why it tells about all those
people who were Jesus' relatives?
When I was little, I was reading "The Bible Story" books that are in
almost every doctor's office and funeral home (at least where I was
growing up). My mammaw had the entire set at her house, and I read
those a bunch. The writer introduced that chapter of Matthew by
saying he had once asked a little girl what her favorite part of the Bible
was. She went on to say that her favorite part of the Bible is the
"begats". If you've looked at an older translation of the Bible, it will say
this person begat so and so, and so and so begat that person, etc.
Today we would say, this person had a son named so and so.
A few days ago, I saw a note in a Bible that said perhaps one reason
Matthew opens with Jesus' family line is to show that God kept His
promise to Abraham. It may have taken God a few thousand years, but
He did keep His promise to Abraham. Abraham had many desendants.
And because Jesus gives us the power to become sons of God when
we begin a relationship with Him, we are Abraham's descendants as
well.
God does not have to answer our calls for help as soon as we ask Him
to. We need to let God do things at the right time. Abraham is an
excellent example of being a Christian. He had a working relationship
with God. He and God had talks all the time just as we can do
because of the blood Jesus shed at Calvary. When God promises us
something, we should be patient for God to act.
In our next look at patience, we will see how God worked with a few
other Bible characters.
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~ please pray for some boys who have been injured in a car
wreck
N Prayer,
Johnny <*}}}><