Fruit Check Pt 2

July 27, 2012
So yesterday I stopped at patience cause I needed to think about that a little more. I needed to find more patience inside me and make sure it is an active fruit flowing from me.

And today, I grabbed my Streams in the Desert devotional to read yesterdays and by golly – if it isn’t about patience! It says:

“Waiting with hope is very difficult, but true patience is expressed when we must even wait for hope. When we see no hint of success yet refuse to despair, when we see nothing but darkness of night though our window yet keep the shutters open because stars may appear in the sky, and when we have an empty place in our heart yet will not allow it to be filled with anything less than God’s best – that is the greatest kind of patience in the universe.”

I have been waiting for my hope for 4 years now. And it is surely coming! But during these waiting years, my hope has been anchored in Jesus. And even if what I am hoping for “leaves an empty place in my heart” I will wait – knowing that God’s best is coming.

I normally notice my lack of patience in our community meetings we have every morning. I’ve been going to this meeting for a year now and I am kind of sick of it. But on the contrary, I had great patience today when I sat in on one of the groups and gave constructive feedback when I really just wanted to yell “Come on! Don’t you get it!!”

I showed patience to some of the new arrivals that came to the chapel crying. And it made me feel good when one came back today to thank me. I remember my first days of prison and I was scared too.

Romans 12:12-13 says “Be joyful in hope, patience in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”

It all goes back to serving others. That is why God fills us with these fruits. Not for our benefit, but for others.