Patience (1)

Okay, so, little time this afternoon but I still had to say SOMETHING...

So one big thing God is teaching me right now through situations both big and small (many small!)--that I just realized today (more on that in a moment) is PATIENCE. Yup, as an easygoing person I always thought I was great at patience, but of course there's always a way to change that, isn't there?! :-)

Well, here's the short of it. This morning, God impressed upon me (okay, smacked me upside the head with) these verses from James 1, 2-4:

"My brothers, count it all JOY when you fall into various trials (temptations, trying situations), knowing that the testing of your faith produces PATIENCE. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

POWIE. One of the other big things God has been impressing on me is that I really didn't fully accept/take in the fact that when God looks at me, He sees Jesus--I was always feeling bad for not doing this, that, or the other thing because deep down inside I felt like, at the end of the day, I had to earn His approval... that even though my righteousnesses and any good thing I can do are like filthy rags, because of the sacrifice of His Son He looks and sees what Jesus made possible for me, and He can really say "it is good." So when I read these verses, immediately my mind came to all the small "squeezes" or trying situations I've been in lately, how I've handled them (not so great), and then how I may be "perfect and complete"--because I'm seen in Jesus. Yeah!

Okay, anyway, I had to post because my friend Jeremy who's on the World Race (I totally alluded to him earlier in my blog if you've been keeping up--what a great trip!) just posted this blog this afternoon (while, ironically, I was in the LONGEST day ever of Teacher Training at the CLC, which was at times a "trial" to test my patience :-) ):

http://jeremyharris.theworldrace.org/?filename=love-joy-peace

Does that just knock your socks off? I love when God blows my mind like that :-) I'm not alone in the struggle, AND I can use what I was shown to encourage others. In fact, I have had more than one friend today already admit that they're struggling with patience, and I've been able to share this verse God just gave to me.

COOL!