Patience: Saturday January 23

Hebrews 6
"Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."

God has gone through great lengths to be clear about his hope for us. This verse states this in a very intense way. Spend a lot of time reading this verse over and over and think about what it means to you. If you were to write to God in response to this verse, would you speak to him with the same conviction and dedication in acceptance of his hope? Would your thankfulness match the writers enthusiasm?

Prayer: Pray that every day we get closer to understanding and accepting God's great hope for us and that it would transform the way we view and live our life on a daily basis.

Patience: Friday January 22

1 Peter 3
"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander."

We have talked about hope that leads us in our patience. Is your hope strong enough in your life that you would have an immediate response to someone that asked you?

The second part of this scripture talks about speaking our hope in a gentle and respectful way. Often, when we are not sure of what we speak, we get defensive or angry when people challenge us. How do you speak about your faith when the matter comes up?

Prayer: Pray that your hope and faith in God becomes stronger than the issues in your life.

Patience: Thursday January 21

Thursday - Romans 5:1-5
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

This is the process of Christian growth. Often we look for ways out of difficult situations or ways to make ourselves feel better in their midst. We want to feel "normal" and comfortable. Often it is hard to understand the blessing in being challenged and, as a result, growing out of comfort areas and into a stronger self. It is too easy for us to live life inside a room full of closed doors we have never given ourselves permission to open.

Do you look for God's lesson when you deal with trials or do you look for a way out?

Prayer: Ask God to grow you and expand your experiences. Pray that he would teach you his way through your trials.

Patience: Wednesday January 20

Romans 15:13
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Many verses of promise like this one, come with the condition of trusting or believing that God is really going to do what he says. When you think about the hope of God's work in your life and afterlife, do you really believe that God's hope is concrete? Have you experienced it? What would it look like if you had complete and total trust in God's hope?

Prayer: Pray that God would continually give you a stronger vision of what your life could look like if you truly lived your life in God's hope.

Patience: Tuesday January 19

Psalm 33:14-19
"...from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth - he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine."

Sometimes our lives are like a clothesline and we hang our confidence and issues on our line of hope. If that line isn't sturdy then whatever we hang on it all comes falling down when it breaks.

What things do you put faith in as the foundations of your life?

Prayer: Pray that God shows you the intricacies of the false hope that we believe in every day.

Patience: Monday January 18

1 Peter 1:3-7
"In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

This passage describes what we talked about on Sunday as "Redemptive Time". Peter calls our current state a "living hope" where, even though we experience many trials, our persistence in pursuit of our hope results in praise, glory and honor from God.

Do you view your life day to day as a living hope? Why or why not? If not, how would you sum up your view of your life and what makes that so?

Prayer: Pray that God tunes your view of life to a healthy and accurate view of your reality.

Patience: Saturday January 16

As we have talked about patience in the act of process, you may have noticed that many issues you have had to work through were because of things learned from problems in the past. Remember that all you have to be responsible for is what you do with the future. Take heart that you are are perfectly safe from the past since we can never go back -- it is eternally behind us. Time is a blessing from God as it provides us a place to learn, heal and build, but we must work through this blessing of time with great patience and be our own supporter not our own enemy.

Think about these things today and pray that God teaches you to love and support yourself while moving on from anything in the past that may haunt you.

Patience: Friday January 15

Think about growth that has happened in your life without you even knowing. Sometimes we look back after working a certain job or being around certain people and realize that we have picked up habits or skills with out knowing it. This can be for better or for worse. What skills, talents or knowledge have you acquired that you barely noticed as they happened?

It is important to understand this principal as this is the way growth usually takes place. Move away from the idea of making or forcing change to happen and learn to allow change to happen in a healthy way by creating good habits. We will learn more about creating these habits later in the year.

Prayer: Offer your life to God as a vessel open to change.

Patience: Thursday January 14

Have you ever reved yourself up with excitement for the begining of something new and then been disappointed, allowing a door leading in that direction to be closed for ever? Maybe it happened with a job interview, or with an important discussion you wanted to have with someone.

There is nothing special about a "first time" attempt. We should understand that sometimes we have to try something over and over before it can become a success.

Prayer: Pray that God will give you bravery where you may lack it.

Patience: Wednesday January 13

Often, in Christian circles, hiding imperfections makes us appear righteous. In recovery groups, hiding imperfections is considered denial. It is frowned upon as it hinders progress. If we don't admit our issues then we can't move forward with them and our process of growth is hindered. This in turn affects our relationships with ourselves, God and each other as well as all progress related to that issue.

Where in your life are you denying issues you know you should be facing. Are there people that you feel would not accept you in some way or another if you were to talk to them about it? Do you feel that way about the church you attend? Could you accept yourself for admitting the issues?

Prayer: Pray that God's grace would allow you to move forward past these obstacles. Pray that there would be people in your life that you can talk to about these things.

Patience: Tuesday January 12

It takes time to create strong foundations. Failing to allow patience into a process develops guilt and frustration because we have unreasonable expectations of results. Thinking that you are going to paint a masterpiece the first time you start to paint is wildly unrealistic and unhealthy for your process of learning this new skill. It would take many years of hard work on top of what natural talent may exist to become a proficient and respected artist.

It can also be a cop out if we say, "That is too hard! I could never be that good." Not being graceful and patient, giving yourself permission to face the process, always leads to certain failure.

Where do you find you have perfectionist tendencies or visions that keep you from being patient with yourself?

Prayer: Pray that God would show you areas where you have unrealistic expectations, esspecially those that you might not know about.

Patience: Monday January 11

Where there is specific movement in your life you will often find that is where God is working. We want to start thinking about positive movement in our lives and the part patience plays in that movement.

Today, think about change in your life, where is process happening right now?
Also, think about change that looms in your mind, ideals that you dream about, visions of yourself that you can't reach or that you attemped but failed.

Prayer: Pray that God would help you see signs of His process for your life and open you up to following His direction.

Patience: Saturday January 9

God calls us to be patient with ourselves, other people and Himself as He works with us. We may be gifted with this attribute or we may find it challenging. After processing the idea of how you use patience in your life this week, where would you put yourself on a scale of one-ten, one being completely impatient and ten being completely patient. What does this say about you? Where would you want to be on the scale? If there is a big difference between where you are and where you want to be, where do you think a realistic expectation can be found?

Prayer: Pray that God helps you to understand the importance of patience in your life and as a tool in His process of transformation.

Patience: Friday January 8

Think about areas where you are patient with some people in difficult situations and areas where you are impatient in others. What is different about these situations that allow you to be patient with some people but not others? Are these beliefs about yourself, the other person/people, or maybe both?

Prayer: Pray that God helps balance your ability to be patient in different situations.

Patience: Thursday January 7

Where are you patient or impatient with people around you? People's driving? Students or children not learning fast enough. Communication with someone at work or a spouse? Who are these people and what are the issues?

Prayer: Pray that God illuminates even subtle areas of impatience that you might not see.

Patience: Wednesday January 6

Where are some areas in your life that you might want to grow but you don't believe that you can start over in something completely new? Do you not have the energy? Are you too old? Is there really a good reason? Do these obstacles affect ideas you have been thinking about when you processed your gifting, passions and purpose statement? Compare the problems with the potential rewards.

Prayer: Pray for clarity in distinguishing real problems from habitual or deceptive excuses when you think about your direction and choices.

Patience: Tuesday January 5

What are things in your life that you may be impatient with right now? Is there anything that is frustrating for you to deal with, a problem at work or home? Is there something you are learning that is difficult for you? Compare these issues to the list of things you wrote from yesterday. How do these things compare? Does this change your outlook at all for worse or better?

Prayer: What is challenging in the now may be surprisingly small in comparison to the tragectory of your whole life. Pray that God will help show you a larger view of your life.

Patience: Monday January 4

The act of patience allows us to succeed in gigantic endeavors. Think about how you felt when you were first learning to read and write. What letters gave you the biggest challenge? What words did you never think you would spell that you now use every day?

Today focus on things in your life that were seemingly impossible when you started them but are now common place after years of practice or exercise. Some examples are: Musical instruments, sports, college courses, driving manual transmission, memorizing facts etc...

Prayer: Pray that God would help you understand that the passing of time is itself a tool for our progress.