Family Values: Posture of Patience

Read Galatians 5:22-23
All of our lives and relationships provide an opportunity for us to wait; we wait for traffic lights, public transport, colleagues, to get married and for family members.

Our culture and society is very busy causing us to multi-task and become impatient.  Studies show that patient people have better mental health, make better decisions and achieve long term goals.

Hurry Sickness: “a behaviour pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness; an overwhelming and continual sense of urgency.”

Patience means a delay in your life that requires perseverance.
The bible uses two words to create a picture of patience;
Hypomonea meaning cheerful endurance or perseverance and reflects the picture of a cup that contains all the things that make us impatient.  As we surrender to God and allow the fruit of the Spirit to be at work in our lives our bowl grows bigger, our capacity is enlarged. 
Makrothumia makro (long or large) thumos (temper or passion), meaning the things that I am passionate about with require patient endurance for me to achieve.
James 1:2-4, Hebrews 12:1-2

Patience means a delay in your life that requires perseverance.
Moses first 40 years as prince of Egypt thinking he was something, spent the next 40 years in the back side of the desert realised he was nothing, then came back to free God’s people and found out what God can do with a nothing – God patiently worked in Moses life.

A posture of patience allows us to pause, listen and trust in God that he is at work (Romans 8:28).

Pause – to stop and reflect on where you are remembering the words of Ps 27 ‘wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord’
Listen – be attentive to what God and others might be saying while you are in the waiting requiring patience.
Trust - Trust God that He is at work redeeming the world, redeeming my life and working on my behalf.

Dale Ryan – “If you serve a God that is only capable of doing miracles that happen fast, you have a shadow of the living and true God. The living and true God has no problem with stuff that takes time… God has a long track record of working with people on struggles that take a long time … God is a patient God,” 

Isaiah 51:4-5, Isaiah 55:1-9

Discussion Questions 
1. What situations in life (big or small) test your patience?
2. As you look back on life, are there situations you have been impatient?
3. Is there a situation you are currently ‘waiting on God’, what do you think He is saying?
4. How do you practice patience daily?