Have patience and faith

“For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance. So that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God …”

— Hebrews 10:36,37 (AMP)

Since we live in a fast lane society, functioning in faith and patience while waiting for something to come to pass isn’t always easy. I think it’s something most of us struggle with, at times.

I like to think of faith and patience as power twins that God has deposited deep within our hearts. We just need his help to grow them and put them to use.

To me, faith is simply believing for God’s help and staying faithful that it will happen no matter how long we have to wait. It’s faith that keeps us from abandoning our mission when others don’t encourage us.

To learn patience is important, because without it we can grow frustrated with ourselves, others and time in general. It makes us want to give up, and sometimes can cause us to feel bad about ourselves because things aren’t going as we planned. But just because things aren’t going the way we want them to doesn’t mean there is something wrong. It just means we either need to give it another try or rethink our direction. This sharpens our ability to work with God and find solutions to solve our problems. We gain knowledge, and may even be able to help others with what we have learned.

It’s not God’s desire for us to be frustrated with our journey and feel insecure. That’s a self-defeating thought pattern to deter our achievement. God is pleased with us anywhere we are in the process.

To rid ourselves of that defeated thought, we can start by embracing what we have achieved, no matter how small the accomplishment. We can tell ourselves that we are doing OK and God is with us. Reaffirming our faith this way helps us feel more powerful over the self-defeating thoughts and establishes our patience.

Also, telling ourselves we are smart, patient and filled with faith builds faith deep within our minds, wills and emotions. And even when we fail to use patience in the situation, we can still use that faith and patience to start again.

• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author of the book “Letters To A Friend,” speaker, life and writing coach and nurse. She can be contacted at annetteebudzban@aol.com.