Patience. Have you ever prayed for God to give you patience, then your life started getting even more difficult, and then you’re left scratching your head wondering what in the world is going on?
James tells us to not think it strange the fiery trials that come to us. (1 Peter 4:12-19) for they are training us to patiently endure trials by putting our hope and focus on Jesus giving us peace and stability despite our circumstances and sowing the word of God in our hearts bringing about character transformation.
The first description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is patience.
We can’t learn patience and let it transform us unless we are trained by adversity. We need the opportunity to practice patience, and true patience is not just putting up with trials but your response to trials, either patiently enduring trials or responding in the wrong way which will only make us less impatient!
It helps when we first wake up in the morning to tell ourselves “This is the day the Lord has made we will be glad and rejoice in it.”
Whatever happens today is God-ordained. Not that God purposefully sends trials but that he allows them out of his wisdom and love.
Every day God allows opportunity to be taught of the Lord purifying our characters. This is the Sower and reaper theme in the book of Mark chapter 4 in the bible. We can’t transform without conflict! Because we live in a fallen world, conflict has become the means of character transformation.
It’s easy to get offended at trials and not bear them patiently, but this only hinders our growth!
James 1:2-4
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
I don’t always patiently bear trials and can become offended by them. Trials are undoubtedly hard, but what I found is key is taking my focus off the trials and putting it onto Jesus! Just as Peter could walk on the water as he kept his eyes on Jesus but the moment, he looked away he started to sink!
I designed a graphic below that you can download and as this picture shows, the way to patiently endure trials is by taking our focus off of them and putting it onto Jesus and as we do this, we cultivate a sense of safety in our nervous system to where fear, stress, and anxiety cannot coexist at the same time.
God allows trials (serpent bites from Satan our adversary) to transform our characters. I call this the school of adversity. I try to look at life as the school of adversity for character-building, growth, and transformation.
Trails are meant to drive us to God not from him. They are designed for us to behold Jesus vs our trials and the evil in ourselves, others, and the world, and by beholding we become changed. Putting our focus on Jesus is the key to our sanctification and our sanity and is how we will be able to endure trials patiently.
Romans 5:1-5
5 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
When trials come your way during the day, cultivate a growth mindset and remind yourself that life isn’t happening to you but for you!
The bronze serpent shown in this picture is a symbol of sin. To purify us God allows the serpent to bite us and the right way to respond is to turn our eyes upon Jesus as we behold him and his love and goodness with praise and thanksgiving, we become changed and transformed from glory to glory!
2 Corinthians 3:18
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
1 John 4:17
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
When we go through the fire God is right there with us and he knows how to help us in our time of need. When we’re weak we’re strong in him!
Hebrews 4:14-16
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
I wrote a book that goes into the refiner’s fire in detail called SOZO: Salvation – The Refining Flame of Love and Truth, showing how God refines and purifies our soul through faith that works by love. It’s being edited right now and when it’s done, it will be ready for purchase.
Since fallen humanity has learned dysfunction and wisdom from below from beholding Satan and eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God desires us to be taught of the Lord, and eat from the tree of life and to have the fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit which is the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
James 3:17-18
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Sanctification is faith that works by love purifying our soul of wisdom from below (sin), perfecting God’s love in us.
Sanctification is not to be confused with justification. We cannot earn our salvation, and this is important to understand. Sanctification is the fruit of Justification and sanctification is the work of a lifetime and we will obviously never reach sinless perfection on this side of life and the only reason we would think we’re perfectly sinless is because we’re measuring our sin against other people’s sin and by doing so, we are calling Jesus unrighteous! The closer we come to Jesus the more aware we should become of our unrighteousness but at the same time faith lets us understand that God loves us just as we are allowing us to go boldly before the throne of God in our time of need.
Because God loves us and sin is destructive, God in his love will continually correct us and guide us on the path of righteousness.
God sows the good seed of truth, the eternal seed of the word of God, and allows trials to purify and perfect God’s love in us to where we are born again of the eternal word of truth.
Hebrews 12:11
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
James 3:17
“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”
1 Peter 1:3
“You have been born again, not by a seed that perishes but by one that cannot perish—by the living and everlasting word of God.
2 Timothy 3:16-4:8
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Isaiah 32:17
And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
As the picture below shows “They overcame by the blood of the lamb and loved not their lives to death.” Sheep blood is the most potent serpent anti-venom! Love and fear cannot coexist! Oxytocin and cortisol are antagonists!
Another thing is God designed our brains to where we cannot multitask, and this is a good thing because this helps us when it comes to redirecting our attention. Short-term memory is short-lived, lasting up to about 30 seconds or less unless you ruminate. We can use this to our advantage when we’re triggered by redirecting our attention and by doing so, we will forget that we were even triggered in the first place!
Trials and temptation will keep trying to demand our attention, but we have to keep redirecting our attention back to Jesus and his goodness! If we don’t redirect our attention when triggered, we will become emotionally flooded from stress hormones which will cause an amygdala hijack to where we are no longer in our right mind using our prefrontal cortex, but the lower centers of our brain will take over.
We have much to endure on this side of eternity but compared to eternity of no more pain or suffering knowing we can trust God’s wisdom, love and goodness which allows us to endure all things for the spirit of love vs fear endures all things and we have been born again of love. (1 John 4:7-21) Let trials make you a better person instead of making you bitter and hardened. Our trials are working to transform us into the image of God by bringing us closer to him, beholding his goodness trusting he’s working all things for our ultimate good because he loves us!
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Isaiah 33:5-6
“The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness. 6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.”
