“Impatience is one of life’s greatest liabilities.”

With each day I am learning to value more and more the operation of patience in my life. I am discovering that true spiritual maturity and personal development cannot happen outside of growing in patience. Patience is often perceived as a challenging virtue and an area that will always be under construction in our lives, and although that is true I want us to consider patience from a different perspective. Let’s reflect on patience, not as an adjective describing how we should hold it together when our children are unruly, but as a noun describing a posture and disposition that fills an individual with peace and creates an atmosphere that extends that peace to others. This spiritual posture of patience is a beautiful thing. It promotes peace, contentment, fullness and positive expectation. Patience knows that all things are working together for good in divine timing and according to divine purposes to manifest ultimate goodness in our lives.

Patience is mature and often takes time, experience and circumstance to develop. When we are still growing in patience we want to see everything happen right away. Then we grow to learn that time is actually one of our best friends because of what it ultimately reveals. Sometimes we make judgments about things only to grow up into the revelation of our own propensity to pre-judge in error. At other times we find ourselves in tight and difficult circumstances consumed with anxiety, only to emerge from that ordeal stronger, wiser and with even more faith for positive outcomes. What time thus proved was that in the end all would be well.

Impatience is one the life’s greatest liabilities, yet God uses the lessons that we learn in seasons of impatience to teach us the value of patience. I have jumped the gun many times in my life and have learned some valuable lessons each time. Interestingly enough however, God never allowed for my haste to produce harm, but rather used it to teach key principles for the development of patience. A patient spirit can lead to a very exciting life as we begin to eagerly (yet patiently) wait for the next miracle that God is going to pull off in our lives.

Furthermore, when we live our lives with patience, we are free from the danger of desperation. I take desperation very seriously and am careful around individuals or circumstances that appear to be driven by it. Desperation is an illusion in life. The fact is, we are never truly desperate or out of options because of an awesome Creator who loves us. God can, at anytime, create a situation that completely remedies the circumstance that would otherwise cause us despair. He is the divine orchestrator and knows how to take all of the circumstances of our lives—good, not so good, or the seemingly indifferent and cause it all to work together for our ultimate good.

Let’s be patient today as we do life. When we are patient, peace-filled and trusting God, it keeps us from being distracted and allows us to see the breathtaking views on life’s journey where good things are happening all around us. If we know that God has got us covered, we can relax and enjoy the amazing things that life never ceases to offer.

Meditation: Father, thank you for giving us the perfect model of patience as we consider how patient you have been with us on our life’s journey. Lord, teach me how to patiently wait on you and to trust you. Lord, deliver me from desperation and the fear of you allowing me to miss something. Help me to know that what you have for me is for me, and can never be taken from me. Lord, I believe your word that says that You will cause all things to work together for my ultimate good. Lord I choose to cheerfully endure all circumstances, knowing that you aren’t finished with me and that the best is yet to come. Amen.

© 2012 Touré Roberts, “31 Tweets To Transformation”