Just Plain Patience

"But Ahaz said, "Listen now, O house of David!  Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?"  (Isaiah 7:13-14)

Hey Gang:  Since I have joined the older than dirt club I have found myself spending more and more time in the "memories library" and enjoy thinking of some of the very special times God has allowed me to experience. 

In the last Gramps Morning Thought, peace was the theme.   What a tremendous promise Jesus gave us when He said, "My peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, not let it be fearful" (John 14:27).

But I want you to know, in case you are struggling with ‘peace’, I too, had a tough time getting this issue resolved in my mind and heart.  When we were in the early days of developing the Village, I do not recall peace being part of my life.  I do recall asking the Lord for peace and seeking solutions in the Word to the anxiety and acid stomach, but with the next ‘runaway’ or ‘day of not enough money to pay the bills’, that "peace that surpasses all understanding got up and went".

And then one day, God sent me a message, "I will in no way leave you or forsake you, what I called you to do I will also equip you to finish the task".  (Hainley rendition)  And then He backed that up with a wonderful gift from our Board president, a week at the Christian Retreat Center in Bradenton, Florida.  Wow, what an awesome week that was!. 

We were privileged to attend services each night and the speaker of the week, a young pastor by the name of Jamie Buckingham. He had spent many months in the deserts of Israel and it seemed that his sermons  directly at me. But there was one that really rang my bell that he title "Patience."  The focus -, when you are in the desert you learn "patience".      His sub theme for the week was "Listen to the path, it is wiser than those who travel it".

Jamie related a story that in certain places in the Sinai, the Bedouin's gather honey called devash,  

from the date palms.  They take the combs and place them in sac's of fine woven material and hang them in trees allowing them to slowly drip from the comb.   A very slow process but one can speed it up by squeezing the combs, but, there is a price to be paid - it streaks the honey making its value go down.

It is kind of like those shops that advertise they will buy your pay check up front so you can spend your money faster but you will not realize the face value of the pay check.  I asked the owner of one such shop if he did much business in this area and was surprised that he has many regular customers that cannot wait for the check to mature.

Jamie's point was "some things can only be learned by trudging.  Elijah learned that many years after Moses had also learned it.  It was not until he got quiet and waited on a mountain that he was able to hear God's voice.  The same is true for impatient men.  It is hard to hear God's voice on a rapid transient.

We recognize from Jesus life on earth that he often withdrew to spend quality time in prayer with the Father and John was able to write the Revelation when alone on the Isle of Patmos. 

Soooo, my friends, yes, you may squeeze the honey comb and get the fruit of the comb more quickly but at what price?.  Jamie gave us a very huge chunk of desert wisdom when he wrote, "Only as he sinks his roots  into the hard soil of the wilderness, only as he waits patiently for the bush to burn, only as he withdraws from his forty days and night and waiting, will he find the source.  Have you found the source of patience in your life?

Blessings, 

Gramps